NORTH MANCHESTER - Before Manchester's volleyball match with Three Rivers Conference foe, Rochester, the Squires huddled up and did a familiar chant.

"What time is it?" shouted the team. "Gametime" they answered. Of course, the Chicago Bulls always chant that before each game. Whether the Squires used that as comparison to the Bulls or not does not matter. Because the team they looked like was John Elway's Denver Broncos. Elway is known as one of the greatest come-from-behind performers in the history of sports. However, Manchester gave Elway a run for his money on Monday night.

Manchester came from behind three times to defeat Rochester 8-15, 17-15, 15-11.

In the first game, Rochester jumped out to a 7-0 lead, but Manchester answered with eight consecutive points to take a one-point lead after a kill by Jodie Peden. Rochester, though, gained back the momentum and finished with eight straight points to win game one 15-8.

Game two started much like game one as Rochester went ahead 8-1. Just when the Squires looked as if they would pack it in and chalk up a loss, Megan Eckert took the reigns with three assists, and the Zebras began to falter. The Squires had another 8-0 run to knot the game at 9-9.

Then, the flow of the match changed dramatically. In all of game one and game two up to that point, there were only 17 sideouts. From the 9-9 tie to the end of the game, there were 25 sideouts. Both teams turned up the heat, but both teams also got tight. After having only two bad serves the entire first game and the first half of game two, there were six bad serves over the last half of game two.

Manchester fell behind 14-11, but staved off two match points and tied the game at 14-14. Trailing 15-14, the Squires put together three consecutive points to win game two 17-15.

It looked as if Manchester would run away with game three, but it was not to be. Trailing 1-0, Rochester went on an 8-2 run to take a 9-3 lead over the Squires. Then, Eckert took over again, dishing out assists left and right. Manchester scored 10 consecutive points for a 13-9 lead. Luciana Leao got a kill and Natalie Stambaugh picked up an ace to close out the match.

"We weren't really playing our game at all," Manchester head coach Jessica Tate said. "Everybody played hard, but we still weren't fighting up to our potential."

Eckert ended with 22 assists on the night to six different teammates, many coming in key situations. Leao had eight kills and Jodie Peden added seven for the Squires. Rochester was led by JoJo Vigar's 18 assists and Marie Rosswurm's nine kills.

Getting the win was important, but Tate still saw places for improvement.

"It was kind of shaky," Tate said. "You can tell it's a Monday. We came out slow, but we got going and were motivated to finish it off. I think they play better once the other team gets to 14 or once we get eight points down. They like to stress me out, I think."

Manchester improved to 15-8 on the season and 3-0 in the Three Rivers Conference and will be at Huntington North on Thursday at 6:15 p.m. [[In-content Ad]]