The Seneca volleyball team, coming off a tough three-set loss Wednesday, used a strong defensive presence at the net and a strong service effort in Thursday’s Tri-County Conference match against rival Marquette at Bader Gym.

The Fighting Irish dominated in taking the opening set 25-12, had a strong start in the second, then held off a late push by the Crusaders to take the match with a 25-20 win.

“Having a presence at the net defensively is something we talk a lot about and really have been struggling with a little lately as far as consistency,” Seneca coach Noah Champene said. “We had a tough time in that aspect Wednesday at Streator, so being stronger at the net was something we talked about being important tonight.

“I thought we were able to get our hands high, have big hands and take away a lot of the court from Marquette. Our two middles, Tessa Krull and Frankie Meyers along with Brooklyn (Sheedy) on occasion, did a great job.

“I also thought we served the ball well and kept Marquette out of system, especially in the first set. We had great service runs from Graysen (Provance), Emma (Mino), Brooklyn and Lexie (Buis) tonight, and that was a big key in establishing a nice lead in both sets. Despite serving aggressively, we didn’t make very many mistakes, so credit goes to the girls for that effort.”

Seneca (15-6, 4-1) used a four-point service run by Sheedy (including a block by Buis and an ace) and three-point burst by Aurora Weber (including two blocks by Meyers) to race to a 16-10 advantage.

Buis then stepped to the line and reeled off seven consecutive points, with a pair of aces and Sheedy and Provance putting down kills. Sheedy’s kill finished off the opening set.

“I thought we played well as a team tonight,” said Sheedy, who finished with a match-best seven kills. “(Wednesday night) against Streator we just weren’t ready to go, and even though we played OK in the first set, we all struggled after that. Tonight, I mean its Marquette, we wanted to win bad. I knew we were going to be good, because we were very focused in warmups and everyone was locked in.

“The first set was really good, and the second set when we needed a sideout or a point, we were able to get it. It was nice to see us bounce back and play well after Wednesday’s match.”

The Irish jumped to leads of 11-4 and 17-8 in the second set. Three Seneca hitting miscues and a kill by Marquette’s Kinley Rick closed the gap before two more winning swings from Rick, plus one each from Kaitlyn Davis and Kelsey Cuchra, cut the deficit to 19-16.

Seneca responded with an ace from Provance and a kill by Tess Krull to help the Irish close out the match.

Graysen finished with four kills, four aces and 10 points for Seneca. Krull posted three kills, while Buis (two aces, seven points) and Meyers each had two blocks. Tori Skelton added a pair of aces.

Marquette (6-8, 2-3) was led by five kills from Cuchra and two each from Rick (an ace, five points) and Davis. Lucy McGrath had two blocks and Carissa Blood five points.

“The first set tonight was not good at all, but I’ll take what I saw in the second set,” Marquette coach Mindy McConnaughhay said. “The first set our serve-receive wasn’t there at all, and then we started to panic, which led to net violations and girls trying to do too much. When we did do something good, we immediately turn around and do something bad.

“Then in the second set we settled down. We had some hitting errors, but we were giving ourselves chances, making better choices, getting into our offense with a better serve-receive and being aggressive. I was happy to see us after the first set come back and play with emotion in the second. We showed some fight.”

Seneca returns to action Monday at Hinckley-Big Rock, while Marquette is off until Thursday when it hits the road against unbeaten Henry-Senachwine (20-0).