Girls volleyball: Tough schedule pays off for Batavia at Glenbard South

Batavia faced a series of tough opponents to start its girls volleyball season, and on paper it had nothing to show for it but an 0-6 record.

But the positive effects of rugged competition, however, were on display in a road match at Glenbard South Thursday evening, when the Bulldogs fought back in a decisive third set to earn their first victory of the young season.

"The strength of schedule helps in games like this," Batavia coach Lori Trippi-Payne said. "Some kids really rose to the challenge."

Trippi-Payne's squad was also playing short-handed, without one of its senior captains and three-year stars, Lauren Haefer.

The Bulldogs coach praised sophomore outside hitter Kyra Taylor, who came off the bench to play a starring role in the victory.

Taylor helped deliver the victory with a late kill to put Batavia up 24-22 in the third set. The Bulldogs won after the next rally.

"We switched our lineups around a lot tonight, going into tonight," Trippi-Payne said. "A lot of kids played big tonight, big. It was exciting to see."

After the two West suburban squads each won a set convincingly, they started to go back and forth in the rubber game.

Host Glenbard South, however, took control of the set when back-to-back aces from Britney Miller ace gave the Raiders a 10-6 lead.

The Bulldogs never went away, though, and tied things up at 17. Then kills from Helen Maurer and Sofia Godinez gave Batavia a 19-18 lead.

Glenbard South hung in but couldn't catch Batavia in the final stretch.

For the Raiders, coach Chad Grant said that down the stretch the Bulldogs hitters found holes in his defense that are not usually there.

"It was kind of uncharacteristic of us," he said. "They got a lot of kills at the end right down the middle, where we should have our blocking and our defense should be positioned."

It was a similar story in Set 1, when the visiting Bulldogs dominated en route to a 25-16 victory.

But the Raiders flipped the script in the second set, jumping out to a 5-0 lead and holding on to it for a 25-15 win.

"We definitely went to the outsides more (in the second set)," Grant said. "We shifted our serve receive so our better passers had more of the court, but they just played better too."

Glenbard South's two talented senior outside hitters, Kathleen Millett and Lauren Sweeton, had 14 kills apiece, while senior setter Sadie Camfield filled the box score with 28 assists, 2 kills and 3 aces. Coco Stachnik added 10 digs for the Raiders, who fell to 3-4.

For the Bulldogs, senior middle Alexis Whelpley had a team-high 11 kills, while Izzy Ward added 7. Libero Taily Kledski was 15 of 15 on serve receiver, her coach said.