Volleyball: Dixon can’t keep momentum in nonconference loss to Geneseo

DIXON – Momentum is a finicky thing, but it’s more important in volleyball than almost any other sport.

The Dixon Duchesses couldn’t control the momentum in the first set Monday night against Geneseo, and then let it slip away down the stretch in the second set as the Maple Leafs won the nonconference match 25-15, 26-24 at Lancaster Gym.

[ Photos from Dixon vs. Geneseo volleyball ]

It was a back-and-forth match between two scrappy, feisty teams, and the Leafs (17-13) were able to win more 50/50 balls than the Duchesses, and turn more of the long rallies into points.

“I think that there were a couple of points that we worked really hard for and that we deserved, and I think they did the same thing. So it all just comes down to consistency, I guess,” Dixon senior libero Natalie Davidson said. “That’s a very fun opponent to play; I like playing matches against them.”

Dixon (20-11) never led in the opening set, briefly tying it 6-6 on a kill by Madyson Tichler and an ace by Hanna Lengquist. But Geneseo scored the next eight points, with Lizze Rapps ripping kills from both the front and back rows, and Jillian Beneke and Katie VanDeWoestyne also slamming kills. Junior setter Alysia Perez also had two kills – one a dump and the other a tip, both perfectly placed – and ran the offense efficiently.

“We just played scrappy,” said Perez, who finished with 19 assists, five kills, seven points, three aces, two digs and a block. “We knew we wanted to play every ball until that whistle blew, so we just wanted to come out and come hard.”

“Lot of 50/50 balls in the first set, and we normally pick up a lot of the down balls, but we just didn’t move our feet enough,” Dixon coach Bunyan Cocar said. “We were a step slow today, they disguised some things, they hit back-row the first set pretty well, and their setter was just kind of their engine, and she did really well.”

The best rally of the night came soon after, as one of the Geneseo back-row players kept the volley alive twice by using her feet to get to Dixon hits that looked destined to find the court. Rapps finished it off with a kill, and then Perez had a block and Aubrey VanKerrebroeck added a kill for an 18-9 Leafs lead.

Joey Brumbly spiked a kill and then served three straight points – two of them aces – to get the Duchesses with in 18-13, then kills by Morgan Hargrave and Olivia Cox cut it to 19-15. But Perez followed with a block, then Rapps, Beneke and Perez all had kills before Addison Smith served an ace to close out the first set.

“I think all in all, it was a scrappy game between both of us,” Davidson said. “They had some pretty good saves, with the whole foot thing – on the same point, that was pretty crazy.”

Dixon led most of the way in the second set, but never could pull away. Kills by Brumbly and Cox and an Ella Govig block early on made it 5-3, but the Leafs tied the set seven times – the last at 16-16 – to stay in it.

Every time Geneseo tied it, the Duchesses scored the next couple of points to retake the lead. Brumbly had back-to-back aces for a 16-13 lead, then her kill sparked Dixon’s biggest run of the set. Morgan Hargrave followed with a kill, then Govig served an ace after a Leafs error for a 20-16 lead.

A pair of kills by Tichler kept Geneseo at arm’s length, and Morgan Hargrave followed the second Tichler spike with an ace for a 23-18 lead. A lift by the Leafs after two Dixon hitting errors got the Duchesses to set point at 24-20, but another Dixon error set up Geneseo’s final surge.

VanDeWoestyne spiked a kill, then VanKerrebroeck tipped another after a Dixon timeout. Perez served an ace to tie it 24-24, then a Dixon hit into the net put the Leafs at match point. VanDeWoestyne closed it out with another kill, as Perez served the final five points.

“We just focused back to what we did the first set, and we just took charge,” Perez said of the final run. “When I went back there to serve, I knew that this was it right here, just focus, calm down, and get the ball over the net and in bounds. Dixon was making some errors, and our team never let up.”

“We just played to not lose. We were tentative at the end, we just didn’t take big swings – we’d hit roll shots, we’d set a little far off the net and we’d tip – and they picked it up,” Cocar said. “At the end of the game, you can’t be tentative, you’ve got to keep doing what you were doing that got you there. But credit to Geneseo; they fought hard, they came back. We had a good lead in the second set and I thought we had it – we had every opportunity to win that second set – but they fought hard and we let it slip away.”

Sydney Hargrave had 13 assists and an ace, Brumbly added four kills, four digs, six points and three aces, and Tichler also spiked four kills for Dixon. Morgan Hargrave had nine digs, three kills and two aces, Davidson led the way with 18 digs, and Lengquist finished with three assists and two aces. Govig and Cox each spiked two kills, with Govig adding a block and an ace.

“I think we were pretty evenly matched with them coming into the game, but I think there was a lot of miscommunication on our part, and Geneseo just kind of built on that and we lost the momentum really quick,” Davidson said. “I thought we had it in the second set, we were so close, but their intensity and momentum went up and ours just kept going down. Honestly, I just think that we need to learn to believe in ourselves and believe in the people next to us a little more.”

“We need to be a little more mentally tough and not let these games get away from us,” Cocar added. “I think it’s a learning process, and we’re still learning how to win, and I hope this is a good lesson going into the postseason of how not to let a team stay with you if you’ve got a good lead; you’ve just got to put it away. We need to pick up defensively, we need to talk more, and clean up our mistakes.”

Rapps and VanDeWoestyne both finished with five kills, and Rapps also had seven digs, seven points, an ace and a block. Beneke had three kills and three digs, VanKerrebroeck spiked three kills, and Smith added eight digs, six points and an ace. Delainey VanRycke chipped in eight digs and an ace, and Kylie Maertens had four digs.

“I think last week, we had one of our toughest weeks of the whole season, so it was tough to not necessarily come out with as much success in the win-loss column last week, but I think it really helped us grow as a team, and learn how to control tough balls and still make a playable ball out of it. I think it really showed, especially when it got to that tight situation, 20-24, to come back and win it,” Geneseo coach Casey Komel said. “A loss is only a bad loss if you don’t learn something from it, so I was really impressed to see that they were able to implement some of the things they learned from their losses last week: how to be controlled, play controlled and tight at the net, and not get called in the net on a tight ball, or serve in the net on a tight ball, that kind of stuff. So I thought they did a really great job with that.”