Over the last six years, Beecher has established itself as the team to beat in the River Valley Conference.

In fact, with a 25-22, 25-23 win over Grant Park in the RVC Tournament championship match in Beecher on Monday, no team in the conference has managed to beat the Bobcats in the last 71 tries, but Beecher certainly faced a test against the Dragons to keep that streak alive.

Both sets were tied at 22-22, with Grant Park erasing a 20-10 deficit to reach that late tie in the second set.

But just four days shy of the six-year anniversary of their last loss to a conference opponent, Beecher got a kill from reigning RVC Player of the Year Elena Kvasnicka that ended the second set and gave her and her fellow seniors a fourth straight conference title here toward the end of their final season.

“We all just kind of took a deep breath and relaxed,” she said of the team’s mentality after Grant Park’s comeback push. “We know that we could beat (Grant Park). We’ve beat them before, we know that we have it in us, and we just needed to take a step back and relax.

“...It feels really nice, especially since the people before we were even in high school were champions too. We just kind of keep that legacy going of being RVC champions.”

Beecher never trailed Monday, but Grant Park threatened to take the lead several times. Grant Park managed to tie things up three times in the first set, but the Bobcats went on a pair of 4-0 runs to break the first two ties and then a 3-0 run to get clear of the third one to end the opener.

They built a quick 6-0 lead in the second set and led by 10 points multiple times, with the latest instance being 20-10, before Grant Park clawed back into things.

Beecher assistant Julianna Picicco said it was great to see multiple players step up in the win, whether it was Kvasnicka putting away nine big kills, Molly Vladika and Anahi Lagunas getting clutch kills in the second set or junior setter Mallory Berry dishing the ball to her attackers, and collecting a milestone in the process.

“I think it was a team effort,” she said. “Passing, setting, hitting, especially from Mallory. She got her 1,000th assist, and that’s awesome. I think it just took everybody.”

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Beecher's Elena Kvasnicka spikes the ball over Grant Park's Camryn Karstensen, center, during the Bobcats' victory in two sets, 25-22, 25-23, over Grant Park in the RVC championship game on Monday, Oct. 20, 2025, at Beecher High School. (Tiffany Blanchette)

Once trailing 20-10, Grant Park mounted a quick 5-0 run in which sophomore Taylor Panozzo recorded a pair of kills and a pair of blocks. Panozzo later served for six points of a 7-0 Grant Park run that made the score 22-22, adding an ace to her productive night.

Although the Dragons ultimately came up a bit short, head coach Caitlin Meyer was happy with how they battled.

“I’m really proud of mentally how they came back from that deficit,” she said. “We really came back at the end and came to win, and we were aggressive throughout that last chunk of the set. We’ve just got to find a way to play at the level consistently to be able win some of these tough matches.”

The Dragons will play Donovan on Thursday before serving as hosts of the Class 1A Grant Park Regional that starts on Oct. 27. They will start their postseason the following day against Aqsa, looking to make a run for their second regional title in the last three years.

For Beecher, a Wednesday matchup with Manteno will wrap the regular season. The Bobcats will then start postseason play in Chicago at the Class 2A Catalyst-Maria Regional, searching to win a regional title for the first time since 2022.

Beecher senior Emily Avelar said the team is ready to hit the postseason running.

“I’m feeling really good about everything, and I feel like we’re going to do really good,” she said. “We have a lot of good chemistry outside of volleyball, and I think that’s a really big factor that comes into everything on the court.

“I’m feeling very confident and positive, and I’m sure we’ll do very good things in the postseason.”