Geneva rallies by Cary-Grove

Geneva's volleyball team found inspiration from little Jacob Seitleman Thursday night, and the Vikings posted their biggest win of the season, a 13-25, 25-17, 25-22 victory at Cary-Grove.

Geneva coach Annie Seitleman gave birth to Jacob on Wednesday, and her players responded with assistant Jessica Anspach in charge with a win over Cary-Grove (17-2), ranked No. 3 in the Daily Herald's Top 20. Geneva (19-2) checked in at No. 7.

"It was a little weird without Seitleman here but I think we came together and played for her and the new baby," Geneva senior Kyley Thompson said. "Coach Anspach has been a huge help along the way."

Thompson posted 5 kills and 9 digs while the one-two punch of Division I-bound juniors Wisconsin-recruit Grace Loberg (10 kills, 1 ace, 10 digs) and UConn-recruit Ally Barrett (10 kills, 1 ace, 5 digs) blasted away to give Geneva a come-from-behind win.

"Collective team effort," Anspach said. "We played as one. Our whole entire team stepped up and improved their game against a really good team."

The Trojans started fast, dominating the first set behind the serving of Sarah Graham with 4 aces. Cary-Grove jumped to a 9-2 lead and stayed in control throughout, sealing the win when Erin Olson set Alessandra Vasquez for a cross-court kill.

However that strong serving in the opening set - 5 aces to 3 service errors - didn't last for the Trojans, who had 2 aces to 10 service errors in the final two sets.

"Game 1 we won because of aggressive serving and then we started missing and we put in easy serves and Geneva was handling it and running a big offense," Cary-Grove coach Patty Langanis said. "It is a fine line of how aggressive you want to get. When you are in a zone you get aggressive and they took us out of it. We got cautious behind our service line and that really cost us."

Geneva took the lead for good in the second set at 8-7. Thompson served three straight points for an 11-7 Geneva lead, which grew to 17-9 on Payton Bellano's ace.

The Vikings kept surging, Loberg blasting 7 of her kills in the set, including one from the back row on set point to send the match to a deciding third game.

"A couple of our girls stepped up and were able to bring leadership to the court," Anspach said. "They picked up their teammates when they were down. I thought they focused on the game plan and served more aggressively and you could tell they were getting their confidence back."

After two mostly one-sided sets, the final one went back and forth. There were 11 ties and 5 lead changes, including ties at 19, 20, 21 and 22.

Cary-Grove led at 21-20 on a block from setter Erin Olson, who did it all for the Trojans, leading them in kills with 8 in addition to assists.

Geneva responded, a kill to an open area short by Loberg tying the score at 21. Another Olson kill put the Trojans back up before Thompson tooled a ball to start a 4-0 Geneva run to end the match.

Another Thompson kill made it 23-21 before Ashley Marcinkus entered to serve the final 2 points including an ace to end the match.

"This was a really big win for us and I'm so excited to take on the season with this win under our belt," Thompson said. "We came together in the huddle and had a team talk and what happened was we weren't controlling our side (in the first set). We said we were going to come together and fix our passing and blocking and I think that's what helped us win."

Mikayla Lanasa set 22 assists and served 3 aces for Geneva. Bellano had 13 digs.

Madison Katchen (7 blocks) and Delaney Bayer (18 digs) played well for the Trojans who will try to rebound Friday against Mother McAuley.

"We needed this," Langanis said. "We needed to play someone of their caliber and see where our weaknesses are. We saw mentally we weren't strong enough to stay aggressive when we needed to and how important it is to be aggressive against a team that has a high-powered offense like that.

"We missed a significant amount of serves and Geneva took advantage. Once they got their offense going and settled down in the backcourt they became a real monster for us to deal with us. They put us on our heels which hasn't happened too often. They played fantastic and we were a little slow getting our blocks up."