Girls Volleyball: Freshman Sam Vanda shines in varsity spotlight, helps lead Geneva to close win at Rosary

AURORA – Just weeks into her young high school career, Geneva freshman right side Sam Vanda already is proving coach Lauren Kosecki correct as to why she deserves the varsity spotlight.

Vanda, who made the team out of tryouts, punched in an ace to push the Vikings to a 25-23 first-set victory and hammered the decisive kill in a back-and-forth 29-27 affair to earn Geneva a sweep over Rosary on Aug. 31.

“You know what Sam does a really nice job of is communicating,” Kosecki said. “She is constantly talking. She’s very positive to her teammates and that’s a really rare quality as a freshman, to come out and be able to vocalize what she wants and what she’s seeing, also lead vocally.

“I knew right away that she could handle the varsity level.”

The Vikings (2-4) have five underclassmen carving our roles for the reigning DuKane Conference champions.

“I’ve been just really impressed with our young kids as a whole,” Kosecki said. “We’re a young group. I’ve just been really impressed with how Sam has come out and played. They’re all playing aggressive. We’re just figuring it out. It’s exciting to see we’re making progress.

“That’s kind of what I keep talking about is, ‘Hey, all I want to see is we’re making progress,’” Kosecki continued. “We’re making that move to the next level.”

Vanda, who plays for Club Fusion outside of high school volleyball, seems to handle the pace of play just fine.

“I play club volleyball, so it’s a lot of the same tension and pressure,” said Vanda, who had four kills and an ace. “I’m used to it. I think our team can do very good this season.

“I think our team just has so much energy, and I think that we mesh really well together,” Vanda continued. “We don’t have any drama or anything. We’re good friends. We go together very well.”

Knotted 19-19, Rosary (0-2) took a four-point advantage at 23-19 but was unable to close out the Vikings despite a stellar seven-kill performance in the first set by senior outside Kylie Loquercio. Kills by Geneva’s Grace Beitzel and Charlotte Potvin and a pair of Royals attack errors preceded Vanda’s decisive ace.

In the second set, the Vikings and Royals were tied five times en route to the nail-biting finish. Rosary built a 24-18 advantage for set point, but Vanda, Lauren Benson and Taylor Tinnes combined for a big run to tie it at 24-24.

Rosary junior Jessica Hirner had a go-ahead kill, but a Royals service error gave the Vikings new life. Geneva freshman Fiona Turnbull connected on a block for a 26-25 Vikings lead, but Royals senior Caitlin Collins came up with a kill to keep the match going. A Rosary service error and a kill by Loquercio made it 27-27, but a Rosary attack error and Vanda’s kill finished the job for the Vikings.

“At the end of the day, [I’m] very proud of these girls,” Rosary coach Francisco Martinez said. “They came out to play.

“We knew we had a tough match with Geneva. We knew it coming in, and we knew we were going to have to win those little points that [Geneva] scratched out at the end,” Martinez continued. “Definitely proud of the girls. We had a much better performance than we did last week.”

Rosary was paced by Loquercio’s 16 kills.

Last season, Loquercio opted not to play spring high school volleyball and instead focused on her club season.

”I think my energy is definitely helping the team, but I’m lucky to have a really good setter [Taylor Riddiford] and my back row is really good at their game,” Loquercio said. “So it’s nice to have people who support me with what I do because it makes my job so much easier when they‘re good at theirs. They‘ve been really doing good.”

Hirner had two kills and two aces for Rosary.

“We showed improvement, and we showed that we’re ready to come out and compete,” Martinez said. “We expect to continue doing so. With matches like these, we definitely look at them as big learning experiences to show us what we can do.”