Girls volleyball: Coyne, WW South battle past Geneva to capture regional title
It might've taken a set one loss to break Wheaton Warrenville South out of its unusual funk, but once it broke free of it, the Tigers weren't interested in giving any room back.
They had a regional title to fight for, and ultimately, win.
The combined serving efforts of Cate Cassin, Maddie Mlady and offensive firepower from Lauren Coyne made sure of it en route to a 24-26, 25-14, 25-10 victory over DuKane Conference foe Geneva at the Class 4A Addison Trail regional title on Thursday.
After trading early leads throughout the first set, the Vikings blasted out to 22-13 lead, seemingly destined for a quick end to the first phase of trying to acquire their own regional title for the first time since 2016. Behind the serving of Cassin - and some Viking attack and service errors along the way - the Tigers ripped off a 9-0 run to tie it up.
The Vikings (24-13) stopped the bleeding with a kill from Makenna Cowhey, but was answered by a kill from Coyne. After a kill from Vikings junior Charlotte Potvin and Tigers serve error knotted it again at 24, the Vikings emerged with kill from Fiona Turnbull and Tigers error to escape 26-24.
"This is something we keep harping about and talking about 'Can we go ahead and deliver when necessary?' and I thought that question got answered," Tigers coach Bill Schreier said. "There was a ton of gas left in the tank. Obviously, we did not put our best foot forward. But, really even the first set, it was back and forth, except for that seven-point stretch we [initially] gave up. Then, what I think what set us up was that [large] run we did with Cate Cassin serving right toward the end.
"Then, to be able to battle and fall short probably gets the adrenaline going a little bit. Then, you realize, 'Hey, for all the errors we're making, we were right there, so now, let's just go play our way. Play our style, continue to chip away at this and be physical at the net.' I thought we did a great job of that."
The first set loss served as a bit of a gut check moment for the Tigers (23-13).
In set two, Coyne caught fire to build an eventual 10-point lead, and Brooke Allred's block finished the job 25-14. Mlady's serving in the early going of the set established the tone. By set three, the Tigers were firmly in control by point 15 with a nine-point lead and climbing.
"Collectively, we knew that the season is not over for us yet," Coyne said. "We've worked so hard that we knew that that wasn't it. Even the first set, the way we came back on the run at the end, I think with that; mixed with the intensity level of everyone, especially the seniors not wanting the season to be over, just helped us push through, get momentum in the first and sweep the second and third."
WW South now faces No. 1 seed Benet in the first St. Charles North Sectional semifinal at 6 p.m. Monday.
"She was serving great," Coyne said of Mlady. "It was a crucial part. I'm pretty sure she has the most aces on the season for the team. It [came] in the best moments tonight. ... Her serving has been super consistent the whole season. Having that is such a crucial part."
Coyne finished with 13 kills.
"Any zone that I call, they have been very consistent at [serving to] and it's such a pleasure to have servers that have the ability to do that," Schreier said. "Early on in the season, we were missing a lot of serves. We preach aggressive. ... I thought the last two, three weeks, we've done a really good job of brining down the height of our serves and really making their serve-receive respond to that. I thought the second and third sets, I thought it set the tone and everyone else followed."
Geneva was paced by Turnbull's five kills.
"We came in, I felt our energy was good. We came after it in the first set. ... Going into the second set, we just came out really flat and we struggled passing, we were making a lot of errors and you can't make errors against a good team," Geneva coach Lauren Kosecki said. "WW South is well-coached. They're a good team and we can't make errors against that.
"However, I'm really proud of this crew. We did a lot this year and we made a lot of improvements."