Boys volleyball: Surging Geneva tops Elgin
Geneva junior Reilly Waldoch is something of a dying breed.
One of the area's leading rushers on Geneva's football team this fall, Waldoch was a key part of Scott Hennig's rotation during the Vikings basketball season.
Now it's the spring season, and Waldoch is still suiting up for the Vikings, this time for the volleyball team. He put down 7 kills Tuesday in a 25-23, 25-19 win at Elgin.
You don't find many three-sport athletes these days, but Waldoch said he wouldn't have it any other way.
"I'm really proud I've stuck with (three sports) throughout my high school career so far and I'm looking forward to senior year too," Waldoch said. "This (volleyball) is just for fun, to keep me in shape for football season I guess. I'm lifting too, three or four times a week after practice or before. It's (volleyball) mainly because I want to represent Geneva anyway I can."
Having played basketball and football a lot longer, Waldoch first tried volleyball as a freshman.
"I like the energy, practices are always fun and games are even more fun when we are playing well," Waldoch said.
Waldoch plans to play football in college. He recently visited Winona State and said he was just invited to attend Wisconsin's kicking camp.
Volleyball coach Stephanie Rasmussen is glad to have Waldoch part of her program.
"We're trying to encourage other athletes like him to come out because they really do make a difference," Rasmussen said. "He's a team leader. He's got a lot of experience. Reilly has really stepped up to the role because he hasn't touched a volleyball since last May. The transition from going to one sport to another is hard but once he gets into the swing of things he's really a big role player for us this year."
Having recently defeated Elgin (9-14, 1-2 in the Upstate Eight) in three sets at the St. Charles East tournament, Geneva (9-11, 3-1) again found itself in a battle in both sets Tuesday.
The Vikings overcame a season-high 14 hitting errors to win the opening set. Anthony Panizzi led Geneva with 5 kills and William Courter had 4.
Panizzi and Matthew Will, who moved from libero to setter this season, are Geneva's only two club players.
"They have really stepped up and helped their teammates this year," said Rasmussen, whose team is 8-4 in its last 12 games after starting the year 1-7.
"We are kind of turning it around and getting ready for the next part of the season. Their confidence in the game has really improved. At the beginning of the season they were questioning their ability but now we are hanging in with the best of the teams. We're excited to compete against some big conference teams coming up."
Geneva never trailed in the opening set, leading 11-7 at one point until the Maroons chipped away to tie the score at 14 on Alex Sentowski's ace.
The Vikings again built a cushion and reached set point at 24-19 when Courter slammed back a Maroons pass that sailed over the net. Elgin didn't go quietly, erasing four set points until Courter again put away a kill for the 25th point.
"We were a little sloppy with our hitting," Waldoch said. "We needed a tuneup a little for our game Thursday with Wheaton North and we needed to get some balls down in the second set."
"The only issues we've had is our passing," Elgin coach Andy Legoff said. "It's killed us this year because the passes are either way too tight or we are back at the 10-foot line. When we had good passes we were able to run an offense but we had to keep forcing the outside all day and it was kind of predictable."
Elgin took its only lead of the night at 7-6 in the second set on a block by Antonio Sanchez-Lopez. The score was tied at 9, 13 and 14 before Panizzi's kill put the Vikings ahead for good.
Libero Mikey Navigato hustled to keep several balls alive late in the second set including one that led to a kill by Waldoch on an assist from Jack Bowman that made it 24-19. Elgin hit long on the next point to end the match.
"Mikey had some big shoes to fill (Will's) and is very much an energy guy and always gives 110 percent and he made some big plays for us and kind of changed the momentum of the game," Rasmussen said.
Navigato paced both teams with 12 digs, Bowman finished with 15 assists and 5 digs, and Will had 10 assists.
Legoff praised the play of Orlando Barrera and said Brian Cedillo has been another key for his club.
"Orlando has stepped up and been a leader for us," Legoff said. "He gets a lot of touches on the ball. And Brian has been a really good outside hitter for us, a high-energy guy for us.
"It's been up and down season. We had a few players move on to different things. We've had a lot of lineup changes. We have not had much consistency which has been tough. It's kind of been winging the lineup. We're still coming out fighting hard but there's no consistency."