Host Crown Point scores final eight points of final set to keep Chesterton from winning tournament on 3-1 Saturday for Trojans

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

On the brink of victory late in the decisive third set, Chesterton’s girls volleyball team lost a close one to Crown Point in the final of the DAC power’s season-opening tournament and went 3-1 Saturday.
The Bulldogs won the tournament title with a 15-11, 18-25, 15-13 win in the best-of-three match against the Trojans.
Chesterton led in the third set, 13-7, but the Bulldogs scored the final eight points of the match.
The outcome does not count in the DAC standings.
The Trojans’ two Division I recruits, senior Tenley Davis (Loyola of Chicago) and junior Luca Bombacino (Michigan) led the way in the near miss vs. the tournament host. The D-1 recruits both had 15 kills in the final. Reese Dilbeck (13 assists), a sophomore, and senior Abby Parrish (12 assists) also stood out. Ryliegh Connor had nine digs and Luca Bombacino had six.
The Trojans defeated North Central 2-0, Cathedral 2-1, and Brownsburg 2-1 to advance to the final. Davis had 42 kills on the day, Bombacino 41. Connor was the day’s leader in digs (38) and Davis had 30 and Gilliam had a team-high 11 blocks.
The wins over Cathedral and Brownsburg, two Indianapolis-area powerhouse programs, softened the blow of the fall-from-ahead loss to Crown Point.
Cathedral finished last season ranked No. 3 in the 3A state rankings and Brownsburg was No.4 in the 4A rankings.
Bombacino shared her overall thoughts on the day: “We were up 13-7 and they came back. It just lights a fire for us the next time we play them (Thursday, Sep. 4 at home). We beat some really good competition. It’s a great start to the season. … It was overall a really good day to be proud of.”
Bombacino also shared her thoughts on the late collapse vs. Crown Point.
“We just have to work on not getting ahead of ourselves. Sometimes we get to those last few points and we think what’s done is done, but it’s not done until the final buzzer, so we just have to really focus in,” she said. “We’re not even fully in season yet and we just have to recognize that that was still a great start to the season. Brownsburg and Cathedral are very good programs.”
She said that at no point did the Penn final match from a year ago creep into her head, leaving a sense of impending dread: “It felt like our exhaustion from the day caught up with us and it got to the point where we thought it was over, and then I feel like our brains kind of checked out. Then after that we were like there is no way they can come back and then we were like, OK, they might come back and that didn’t work out for us.”
The Trojans’ tough nonconference schedule continues with a match at Munster on Tuesday. Then on Thursday the Trojans travel to Mishawaka to play Penn, which knocked them out of the regionals with a dramatic come-from-behind victory after Chesterton had won the first two sets and taken a lead in the third.
“Playing good competition is the only way to have fun at this sport,” Bombacino said. “It’s not fun to blow out a team, 25-2. I’d rather have it neck and neck and even if we don’t come out on top it’s something to learn from, something to grow from.”
After playing at Munster and then turning their attention to Penn, the Trojans will be looking to finish what they could not last postseason.
“Oh, 100%,” Bombacino said. “We’re all very fired up for that game.”