What’s been going well for the Manteno girls volleyball team lately?

“Everything,” junior middle hitter Maddie Gesky said. “Our team chemistry, especially.”

Gesky and her Panthers teammates proved that on Monday when they went to Bishop McNamara and rebounded from a 20-25 first-set loss by controlling a 25-18 second set and holding on in a seesaw 25-23 third set for their eighth win in a row.

“Everybody wants to win, everybody wants to work for each other,” Gesky, who had eight kills, eight digs and four blocks on Monday, said. “I don’t think anyone wants anything for themselves, they want what’s best for the team and to push each other each day.”

Save for a brief 14-13 lead after a McNamara hitting error, the Panthers (28-4) trailed the entire first set, watching the Fightin’ Irish pull away late after a pair of Panther errors.

But they locked in during a second set in which they never trailed, getting a balanced offensive attack from Gesky, Maddy Belisle and her team-high 10 kills and the six-kill trio of Olivia McElory, Kendall Blanchette and Leah Milton.

Whether it was the balanced attack set up by Danika Fletcher (20 assists) and Leah Donnelly (16 assists) or their valiant defensive effort led by Gesky’s net-front presence and Morgan Derrico’s 18 digs, Belisle agreed with Gesky that Monday’s win was the result of the sum of the Panthers’ parts.

“It was definitely a whole team effort,” Belisle said. “Everyone definitely gave their best effort, and even on points where someone might not have had their best play, everyone lifts them up.”

Like she did in the first set, McNamara’s Journey Slone gave the Irish early momentum with a set-opening kill in the third as the hosts took an early 3-0 lead in the decisive set. In a back-and-forth battle, the Panthers came back to force ties at seven, 11 and 12, taking a 13-12 lead on a Gesky block.

A Jersey Slone kill promptly tied it back at 13, but after an Irish double hit that put the Panthers back ahead, they never trailed the rest of the way and also never led by more than three the rest of the way.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – they’re the hardest working team," Panthers coach Alexis Hosselton said. “They feed off of each other and never give up, and it’s just so fun. We tend to sometimes shut down, but we always come back. It’s such a breath of fresh air as a coach, because I never have that concern if we’ll pull it off.”

It was the second loss against a fearsome local team that went three sets for McNamara (10-13) the past week, as the Fightin’ Irish also fell in a three-set heartbreaker at two-time defending IHSA Class 1A State qualifier Cissna Park last Wednesday.

Journey Slone’s nine kills were a team high, followed by eight apiece from Kate Dole and Trinitee Thompson, fed by setters Camille Czako (17 assists) and Montana Reid (16 assists). Emma Coughlin served up a game-high three aces while Gianna Brosseu had 11 digs.

“Our schedule isn’t easy and we definitely challenge ourselves, but we’ve just got to finish these games,” McNamara coach Ryan Thomas said. “We’ve been in a couple of them, we’re right there, and that’s the story of the season. We get right there and just let it get away. We’ve got a week to work on what we’ve got to work on and get right for (next) Tuesday.”

Next Tuesday is when the Fightin’ Irish will meet the Panthers again, as the two are paired against one another in the Class 2A Seneca Regional semifinals. With Monday’s game, last week’s game at Cissna Park and a fifth-place finish at the Chicagoland Christian Conference Tournament over the weekend, Thomas said the Irish are getting some good competition in ahead of the postseason.

That’s something that Hosselton echoed, as the Panthers won the Seneca Invite over the weekend, can clinch at least a share of the Illinois Central Eight Conference if they beat Streator on Tuesday and then host Beecher on Thursday.

“It’s tough competition and I told the girls the more we win this week, the bigger the statement and the bigger the confidence we should have going into the postseason,” Hosselton said. “This competition is as good as it gets as far as regionals. Mac’s an excellent opponent. It’s just working together and figuring this out against Mac again, because we’ll both have to be ready with different gameplans, and then preparing for other teams we haven’t seen yet.”