GENEVA —
The Lakeside Dragons and Geneva Eagles are on opposite ends of the spectrum on the volleyball court when it comes to successes this season.
As the Eagles continue to pick up their high powered game, the Dragons are taking short but steady steps to improve. That fact may get lost in the box score of Tuesday night’s Premier Athletic Conference contest at Geneva as the Eagles emerged victorious, 25-12, 25-13, and 25-8.
Steadiness and consistency were the hallmarks of victory for Geneva (9-4, 3-2 in PAC), and that’s just what coach Annah Haeseler was looking for.
“Our goal tonight was to play clean and to play loud,” she said. “Communication is a very important thing in volleyball, and ours was very good tonight.”
That communication among players both on the floor and on the bench were critical for the Eagles. A key point to the match was that Geneva didn’t leave many open spots on the floor after they got the ball over the net, while the youthful Dragons (1-8, 0-6 in PAC) played aggressively but got caught with players out of position to set up returns.
“We played very hard tonight,” Lakeside coach Norm Potter said. “We have a major tendency to start slowly, and it’s tough to always come back from that. A key point tonight was that Geneva always seems to have a calm presence on the court, and they know when to move to different spots to set up plays.
“We’re not to that point yet, but we did a much better job tonight of getting touches on every ball. We’re still building our confidence, working on sensing when we can beat a team, but it’s coming.”
Despite the score, the third game was a major improvement for the Dragons and was by far their best game of the match.
After Allie Penna (8 points, 32-32 setting, 10-10 passing) served up the first two points of the game, the Dragons narrowed the score to 3-2 before Christa Cash served up a pair of points and Emily Ball fired home a trio as part of a 4-0 run.
Getting only a single service point from Sharisse Hunt in the game, Rikki Metzler fired home eight in a row to close out the game and match. While the Dragons got to most spike attempts from the Eagles and kept the ball alive, Geneva eventually was able to do what they did best in this match — find open spots on the floor.
“I thought the key thing for us tonight was playing clean, error-free volleyball as much as we could,” Haeseler said. “Our movement tonight to cover the floor was excellent, and that is what we needed to have.”
The win sets up a big match on Thursday with the Riverside Beavers for the Eagles. The Dragons also have a big matchup coming on Thursday when they host the unbeaten Edgewood Warriors.
For Potter, the learning continues for his young team.
“The girls have improved a lot since the season started,” he said. “If we keep trying and playing hard, good things will continue to happen for us.”
Kelly is a freelance writer from Jefferson.
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