Girls volleyball: Geneva defeats St. Francis in three sets
Grace Loberg and her Geneva girls volleyball teammates haven't often dropped even a set this season, and when they do they get a little riled up.
Monday night at St. Francis, the Vikings dropped the second set against the defending Class 4A champion but then played a near-perfect third set to claim the match 25-20, 22-25, 25-11.
Loberg had 7 of her team-leading 13 kills in the opening set, including a stretch of four straight winners that broke a 13-13 tie and helped Geneva (27-1) jump ahead. But after the Spartans rallied to take the second set, the visitors flexed their size and muscle in running away with the decisive set.
"We haven't lost very many sets this year so when we do we get angry," the 6-foot-2 outside hitter said. "We want revenge. We don't want to give them any hope that they can win it."
Loberg credited her teammates with helping her hot streak in the first set and with an overall solid effort in the third.
"It was fun," she said of her team's 7-1 run that built a 20-14 lead in the first set and featured five winners from Loberg. "You always need the momentum on your side and everything was going our way. The passers were passing great and the setters were setting great. That obviously made it possible for the hitters to get the kills."
Monday marked the first time Loberg had ever played against St. Francis, but she knows several of the players from club ball. The two teams may very well meet again in the playoffs; the Vikings are seeded first and the Spartans second at the Geneva sectional.
St. Francis outside hitter Laney Malloy, who had 14 kills, believes the match will help her team should it square off against the Vikings in the sectional finals.
"I think it's good that we got to play them before we might see them in the state tournament," she said. "I think definitely this game gave us a little more confidence that we can take (at least) a set from them if we're doing the right things. But then we kind of fell apart in the third set.
"I don't think we see this as a setback. It's more a learning experience and a preview of what we need to work on if really want to get past them in the sectional."
Spartans coach Lisa Ston, whose team is 26-8, felt her team just couldn't stay on the high it rode in the second set and, at the same time, Geneva played a superb final set.
"It's one of those things where you get really high from that big win and we went away from our game plan a little bit and we didn't execute," she said. "And to Geneva's credit they played an error-free game. Our execution in the third game just wasn't there and to their credit I don't know that they made any mistakes in the third set."
For the Vikings, Allyson Barrett had 11 kills and Alexandria Mullen had 9 to join forces with Loberg on a balanced, formidable attack. Setter Mikayla Lanasa was on top of her game with 36 assists and 7 digs.
Vikings coach Annie Seitelman enjoyed watching Loberg's hot stretch early but liked the entire team's effort throughout just as much.
"Those kinds of plays really build energy and momentum for us," she said of Loberg's blocks and big swings in the first set. "The girls start to feed off each other and we were able to score some real points back to back and kind of give us that buffer.
"But we have a lot of versatility and a lot of options. If teams focus in on Grace we have a lot of other options…you can tell from our attacking tonight that we're able to share the wealth a little bit."