Senior Tenley Davis leads Chesterton into share of first place in DAC with win in five sets at Crown Point, putting an end to Bulldogs’ 35-match winning streak in the series

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Clenching her fists and screaming and beaming after every one of the team’s big points for four years now, Chesterton’s Tenley Davis has led her school’s volleyball team in emotion and multiple statistical categories, but her emotions had not manifested themselves through tears very often.
Until Tuesday night in Crown Point.
Chesterton scored its final point of a five-set victory that snapped the Bulldogs’ winning streak in the series at 35 and Davis dropped to her knees and turned into a hose nozzle on the jet setting. Tears poured out of her, and after she got on her feet, a succession of teammates, coaches and friends pinned huge hugs on the talented athlete who plays with boundless energy.
Davis has led the Trojans’ volleyball program to a series of firsts, such as the first sectional title since 1977 and the school’s second in school history a year ago, when she set the single season record for kills. She added career kills to her school record collection early this season.
Davis and the most talented teammates she has had in her time at Chesterton, scored the school’s first win in 13 years and five days against Lake Central and followed it with a sweep of the perennial DAC volleyball power, back-to-back wins after losing 24 in a row. Davis added the career kills school record to her list of accomplishments early in the season
Those were all terrific. But defeating Crown Point? That put everything else in a race for second place, a place, by the way, that isn’t good enough anymore for the Trojans (25-3 overall, 10-1), now tied for first with Crown Point (23-3, 10-1) in the DAC with three conference matches left on the schedule.
“Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh,” Davis said and explained her tears. “I’m actually a very emotional person and I had so much emotion built up, so much adrenaline of ups and downs, and so much happiness, so I think it just came out.”
Davis and Abby Parrish were freshman varsity players in Lindsay Nibert’s first season in charge of the program and the team’s gradual growth culminated in Tuesday’s win.
The Trojans were 16-17 overall, 6-8 and in fifth place in the DAC the first year, then 22-12, 8-6, fourth place, then 25-10, 10-4, third place, now needing only to win matches against the bottom three schools in the DAC: Portage, then Michigan City, then Merrillville to gain at least a share of the DAC title with Crown Point.
Chesterton won the match at Crown Point by scores of 25-22, 23-25, 12-25, 25-17, 15-10. Add them up and it totals 100 points for Chesterton, 99 for Crown Point. That’s how evenly matched the Trojans, No. 11 in the state in the Maxpreps computer rankings, and the No. 4 Bulldogs were on this night.
“I’m happiest for our seniors,” Nibert said. “They needed that. They’ve wanted that. We have needed that, and they deserved it, and they finally did it and they got it and I’m excited for them. But I’m also excited that they got to show the rest of the program, all right, from now on that’s what we do. We’re done with this drought.”
The first sign that this could be different came in the first set, when the Trojans appeared a little jittery, didn’t serve particularly well, encountered serious difficulties in the serve receive part of the game, fell behind 20-15 and still managed to win the set, 25-22.
Junior middle blocker Maddie Gilliam, who has committed to play for Butler University, played a huge part in the team coming from behind to win the set with multiple huge blocks and hard-swinging kills. She scored the 25th point.
Reese Dilbeck had the most improbable play when she hustled her way to keep a ball in play and her momentum kept her going all the way into her team’s bench on a point that drew the Trojans within 13-11.
The second set was tight all the way, with nobody building a lead of bigger than three points. The Bulldogs scored the final three points to even the match.
Then Crown Point flexed its muscles with 25-12 dominance heading into the fourth set.
That’s when Davis stepped forward with words of leadership and a tactical suggestion that Nibert allowed.
“I just tried to tell them, ‘This is it,’ and I tried to put it in the perspective of the seniors’ eyes because all the seniors were playing,” Davis said. “I said, ‘This could be the last time we see them. We have to act like it’s a new set, act like it’s a new game, 0-0. We have to make them be a little like, ‘Ooh, why do they have so much energy?’ We have to throw them off guard.’ I think they anticipated us to be down, so when we came out on fire, it threw them off a lot.”
Junior Elle Schara, a Purdue commit, was super dominant in the third set and Davis was convinced she had the kryptonite to throw her off her game, so she asked Nibert if she could switch to the right side and was given the go-ahead.
Nibert's take on how the move helped.
“It was able to get us to spread something out with the ball. It was harder for them to make that adjustment and notice that," Nibert said. "They stacked their big on Tenley, so that limited her opportunities and then when we made that switch, they were stuck in that position.”
The Trojans responded with their best set of the night, winning 25-17 with Davis and Gilliam having the biggest impact.
“Oh my gosh, her blocking, crazy,” Davis said of Gilliam. “And just her energy. And when we get her the ball, light’s out. She swings so hard!”
Added Michigan-bound junior Luca Bombacino: “Maddie’s incredible. She does great under pressure, which is one of her best traits. She gets so excited to be able to block these big blockers and she does so great.”
Nibert also pointed out that big games draw big performances from Gilliam.
“She was dynamite. She does that and the great thing about it is she does it in big matches,” Nibert said. “She did it against Lake Central. She did it against Angola. Those big teams that we played, she looked like that, and I love that. I love that. She really pulls through when we need her to in those big situations.”
The Trojans took command of the decisive set right away and never surrendered it. They built a lead as big as 12-5 and survived four consecutive points from the Bulldogs at that point.
Crown Point had its streak of 29 consecutive regular season DAC winning streak snapped.
Davis’ contribution was the biggest, but other seniors delivered in the clutch as well. Parrish not only set opponents for big points, she also had a big night blocking and added timely kills to the cause.
Brooke Williams with big blocks at the net and big swings for kills, had a big impact, as did Peyton Ello, who had key blocks. Elaina Markwart was solid in limited playing time. Ryliegh Connor passed well and played strong defense.
“I think Brooke realized that she has so much more potential, and I think she’s finally growing into her body and her movements and her athleticism,” Davis said of Williams. “She’s finally found the confidence that we’ve all seen in her. She’s swinging hard and getting up and trying to be the best teammate she can be. She’s grown immensely.”
As has the team. In previous years, the Trojans were on the losing end of comebacks like the one they won in Crown Point, bouncing back from a 25-12 loss in the third set.
“We huddled around each other and regrouped and found that fire within us again,” Bombacino said. “We were like, ‘OK, this is the last time we’re playing them, we want it to be a good one. We don’t want it to be another one where they beat us and we roll over.’ We wanted to make a difference, make history and we’ve all wanted to beat them for so long.”
Gilliam said she was “so happy for all the seniors. Tenley, I feel she wanted to beat them the most. I mean, we all did, but she has the fire in her eyes to want to beat this team and she very much deserved it. This meant the world to her and I’m so glad she was able to experience this, especially in her senior year.”
It was only one win in the standings, but the general sentiment on the winning side was that it has the potential to echo for a long while.
“Not having all our seniors will be a huge loss, but they’re going to lose people too, and we’re going to have that fire in their eyes to beat them because we know we can,” said Gilliam, whose confidence in the future of Chesterton volleyball is backed by the presence of classmate Bombacino and sophomores Dilbeck and server extraordinare Delaney Barrett.
It's possible the Trojans won’t need to wait until next year for another shot at Crown Point. The two schools don’t play in the same sectional anymore but could meet again later in the postseason.