Girls volleyball: La Salle-Peru survives tough first set to beat Geneseo, advance to regional final

LA SALLE – On the first volley of the night, Geneseo’s Elizabeth Rapps hit a back-row shot that tipped the net and fell on the La Salle-Peru side for a point.

That was the first of many things that didn’t go the No. 1-seeded Cavaliers’ way in the first set of a Class 3A La Salle-Peru Regional semifinal match Tuesday.

L-P had two service errors, was called for two net violations and had trouble putting balls down against the Maple Leafs scrappy defense in an 11-point loss.

However, the Cavs bounced back with strong starts in the second and third sets to defeat No. 7-seeded Geneseo 14-25, 25-16, 25-17.

“We started out slow probably because of the nerves, but I feel as we got into our groove we did our thing,” L-P junior Ava Currie said.

The Cavs (29-6) advance to play No. 4 Morris, which defeated No. 6 Rochelle 25-20, 16-25, 25-22 in Tuesday’s other semifinal.

L-P beat Morris 20-25, 25-20, 27-25 and 25-21, 25-23 in Interstate 8 Conference play.

“Everyone was tight,” L-P coach Mark Haberkorn said about the matches against Morris this season. “The matches were very competitive. We just finished at the end. That’s what we’ve done this year a lot. We seem to have that little burst at the end.

“It’s going to be an exciting night Thursday. Whoever plays the best is going to win. There’s no guarantee for anybody.”

L-P never led in the first set after the Leafs scored the first two points. Haberkorn called timeouts with the Cavs trailing 13-9 and 18-10, but the Cavs never closed the deficit to less than five points.

“We didn’t play well in the first set,” Haberkorn said. “I think it was a couple reasons. We hadn’t played in a week, and Geneseo just played lights out. They dug everything. Every 50-50 ball went their way. We just couldn’t get any momentum built up the way they played in set one.”

Haberkorn said the Cavs discussed their approach between the first and second sets.

“We just we have to be aggressive,” Haberkorn. “It seemed like we were playing not to lose instead of playing to win. I told them to just keep hustling, the momentum was going to change.”

The Cavs were able to grab the momentum early in the second set as two kills by Addison Urbanski and a tip by Currie helped L-P to a 4-1 lead.

“I feel like it was just our energy,” Currie said about the key to the strong start. “We were kind of down [on ourselves] in the first set after we got down in the beginning. Once we brought that back up, things went up for us.

“We had that mentality of winning.”

The Leafs rallied to briefly take the lead, but a block by Katie Sowers gave L-P the lead for good at 8-7, and the Cavs slowly pulled away.

Sowers set the ball over then put down a kill for the final two points of the set.

L-P took early lead in the third set as well.

After Geneseo’s second service error of the set, Marissa Sanchez served a five-point run for L-P that included kills from Addison Duttlinger and Urbanski to give the Cavs an 8-2 lead. The Cavs pushed the lead to 16-5 and never let the Leafs get closer than seven points the rest of the way.

“Set two and three we finally started to play more consistent,” Haberkorn said. “We were more aggressive. We were able to have a little bit more rhythm and flow to the game. Our defense got a lot better. Everything just seemed to click.”

L-P had a balanced attack at the net, with Urbanski leading the way with nine kills. Currie had eight kills, Sowers had seven, Aubrey Duttlinger had five and Addison Duttlinger added four. Sowers had 16 assists, and Urbanski contributed 12.

Sowers and Currie had two blocks each. Sanchez led the back-row effort with 18 digs, while Kayle Abens had 13.

Sanchez (17 points), Bridget Hoskins (15 points) and Abens (10 points) were the leading servers.