Volleyball: Defense helps Seneca overcome pesky St. Bede

SENECA – Utter the phrase “defense wins championships” anytime during the month of September and most will ask what football game that person is referring to.

However, playing well in that facet of the game doesn’t hurt a volleyball team’s chances, either.

In Monday night’s nonconference home match against St. Bede, the Seneca Fighting Irish shined defensively in the back row and at the net, allowing them to hold off a feisty, well-matched Bruins team for a back-and-forth 28-26, 25-21 victory.

Faith Baker collected five blocks, and Sophie Cato clubbed nine kills to pace the Irish at the net on their way to lifting their record to a solid 11-5. St. Bede drops to 7-11 on the season.

“St. Bede played a great game defensively, no doubt … but our defense both in the front row and the back row for us was excellent all night,” Seneca coach Noah Champene said. “Our passing was good enough to control the tempo of the offense and get us some good swings on the ball. Outside of the missed serves in the first set, I thought is was a pretty solid all-around game for us, but like I said, the defense was excellent.

“It’s pretty much what we thought it could be at the beginning of the season. It’s starting to mesh a little more, gain some chemistry. I think the girls understand their responsibilities, who’s around them and who’s doing what job, so in that way, we’re getting better and the more we play, the better we’ll get.”

The match couldn’t have been any closer in the first set for these two teams, who had met earlier this season at the Hall Tournament and saw Seneca come away with a nip-and-tuck three-set win. The biggest lead for either team was three points, when a Teegan Johnson block made it 17-14. However, just as quickly a sideout, consecutive blocks by the Bruins’ Isabella Pinter and a kill by Emily Robbins and the visitors were on top, 18-17.

Three times the Bruins had the serve needing a single point to take the set, but each time Seneca dodged the bullet. Down 24-22, a block from Cato earned a sideout, trailing 25-24 a service error tied it and down 26-25, a kill from Leslie Klicker knotted it again.

Johnson followed that with a kill, and Klicker fired off an ace to finish the win.

The second set was a little more one-sided toward the home team, a four-point service run by Cato giving it a 9-3 lead and later a Cato kill, a Johnson slam and a Cato ace took it to 20-14. St. Bede stayed tough, almost erasing a 23-16 deficit behind a sideout kill and two points from Ali Bosnich and a block by Anna Lopez that got them within 24-21 before the last of Johnson’s eight kills wrapped it up.

“I thought our defense played hard and did a good job picking up the ball off the block, and I can’t ask for any more than that,” St. Bede coach Abbi Bosnich said. “The difference was that a few times I looked across the net and there would be a ball that I thought was down, but Seneca would just keep going to get that ball. They never gave up, where sometimes we did. We’d stop because we thought a ball was too far or because there was miscommunication, but Seneca never did that. They did a nice job.

“We played them earlier in the season and it was just as close as this one. … I told the girls in the first set when it was 17-17 and there was a timeout, this is what you play for, close games, not easy ones like 25-10, 25-11. When you play in a match this tight, it can only make you better and help you grow.”