Reverse sweep! Trojans end 25-match losing streak to Lake Central with huge road win, 3-2, to remain unbeaten in DAC play

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

A dogpile of Chesterton volleyball players in August said it all about just how big a win the Trojans had just completed late Thursday night in St. John.
Chesterton finally defeated Lake Central by the slimmest of margins, 3-2, winning the final set, 15-13, for the first time since some of their players were in diapers.
The Trojans ended an LC winning streak of 25 matches, winning for the first time since Sep. 18, 2012.
It took a reverse sweep to do it, making it even more satisfying for the visitors, who staged a relentless comeback to win 18-25, 23-25, 25-22, 25-22, 15-13. Do the math. LC had 116 points, Chesterton 115, a measure of how tightly contested the match was all night.
As always, Division I outside hitters Tenley Davis and Luca Bombacino put pressure on the LC defense with searing shots, mixed with taps here and there, but to slay an opponent so well drilled was going to take more than that. Enter senior Abby Parrish, who shares setting duties with Reese Dilbeck. She played her best match of the season and did it with more than her clever setting, making timely blocks and powerful swings every bit as big a part of her night.
Where did that come from?
“I think it was the fire of thinking this is really it,” Parrish said. “If we want to win the DAC, this is our start, this is how we get it. Also, me being a senior, very sentimental. This is my last time at the LC gym. I wanted to go out knowing I put my all on the court.”
Parrish wore proof that she gave it all she had.
“My jersey is dark maroon because of all the sweat,” No. 12 said.
That’s why every time she went to the floor in pursuit of a ball, including a huge outstanding dig late, she followed it with grabbing a towel and wiping the floor.
“I don’t want anybody to get hurt, so I clean it up,” she said.
Coming from behind in the match added to the sense of accomplishment.
“The reverse sweep, it always feels so nice to get that,” she said.
Parrish’s powerful swing for a kill sealed the 25-22 win the fourth set after LC had tied it, 21-21. Freshman Audrey Roach, an infant the last time Chesterton defeated LC, responded to Parrish’s winning shot by showing some power of her own, shoving Parrish halfway across the court.
“They tend to do that,” Parrish said. “That’s just what they do to get momentum, I guess. I do the same thing. After teammates get great digs, I make sure to shove them.”
A Seinfeld shove. Whatever works.
Parrish’s timely kills, along with those delivered by junior middle blocker Maddie Gilliam, were instrumental in making Chesterton less predictable.
“I know that our outsides (Bombacino and Davis) are such big dogs, it’s insane, that we need to have those options where we can spread out the hitters, so then the block on the other side doesn’t know that we’re going to the outside every time,” Parrish said.
Momentum was difficult to seize Thursday because whenever Chesterton appeared to be at the beginning of a roll, LC was there with a big dig, a powerful, steep kill, a well-placed serve.
“They are well coached. They are well trained,” Chesterton coach Lindsay Nibert said after her first win over LC. “They are so strong in their skills that we just had to make sure we were on our A game.”
During the first three years Nibert was head coach, all with Davis and Parrish playing big roles, the Trojans had gone 0-6, losing once by a 3-2 margin, four by 3-1, once on the wrong end of a sweep.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted,” Nibert said. “It’s always been in our wheelhouse. We’ve known we’ve always been capable of doing it. It’s just making it finally happen and overcoming ourselves. I feel like that’s always been the factor that get to us is us beating ourselves.”
The biggest block of the night was the victory itself because it killed the mental block that Chesterton seemingly has had against LC and Crown Point in recent seasons.
The fifth set started as the match did, with LC striking first. The hosts took a 3-0 lead. Seemingly jumping even higher than normal, Bombacino showed off some Michigan might, and buried multiple shots in the final set, the first on a nifty pass from sophomore Delaney Barrett. Gilliam found the floor with power as well, and Davis contributed a clutch late kill.
A 3-0 deficit became a 5-4 lead on a Bombacino point, then an 8-5 advantage when Gilliam scored, then 12-8 when Bombacino struck again and 13-10 on a Davis point. Bombacino came out of a timeout with a kill that made it 14-12. Fittingly, Davis had the clinching kill.
“We were finally able to play to our potential the entire time,” Nibert said. “I’m not going to say we played great the entire time. I mean, we played wonderfully, but we gradually got better throughout the night against tough competition.”
More tough competition awaits the Trojans at the Plymouth Powerball Tournament on Saturday, when the opposition will be in New Prairie, Warsaw and a rematch with Penn, against which the Trojans scored a big road win, 3-1, on Aug. 21.
Then it’s back home, where given the opponents, Valparaiso on Tuesday and Crown Point on Thursday, big crowds that draw even spectators who don’t normally watch the sport, are bound to show up to check out a team on a roll.
The reverse sweep over LC lifted Chesterton’s record to 8-1, the lone loss coming on the first day of the season to Crown Point in a best-of-three title match of the Bulldogs’ tournament.
Avenging that loss won’t be the motivation when the Trojans play the Bulldogs because if on Tuesday the Trojans defeat Valpo and Crown Point wins at home vs. Lake Central, the match will be a battle of DAC unbeatens with the winner emerging as the early favorite to win the conference.