Bowling Green sophomore Addison Brokaw, who finished the match with 12 kills, delivers an attack in Tuesday’s win over Springfield. (Nicholas Huenefeld | Sentinel-Tribune)
By Nicholas Huenefeld
Special to the Sentinel-Tribune
HOLLAND — The Bowling Green volleyball team overcame a slow start behind a combined 27 kills from Madison Cowan and Addison Brokaw on the road Tuesday in a hard-fought 25-22, 25-16, 25-9 victory over Springfield.
“We came out a little flat in that first set,” BG coach Deb Mathias said. “I don’t think (our girls) were expecting the heart and intensity level that the Springfield girls played with. They came out ready to play and were getting after it.
“I think our girls were a little shocked at first, but we made the adjustments. I think we had some unforced errors in the beginning, some missed serves, hit the ball out a couple times, struggled on the block a little bit and didn’t shift on defense the way we should. But we made those adjustments and came back.”
Nine different Bobcats had at least one kill against the Blue Devils, led by 15 kills and 10 digs from Cowan, while Brokaw added 12 kills and eight digs.
Sophie Sheperd contributed 24 assists and seven digs. Molly Ruthenberg chipped in 16 assists, and Hanna Heinze led the team with 20 digs.
Marley Camera had a strong start for the Wood County squad, registering two kills and a block as BG scored eight of the first nine points in the match.
Springfield (5-13), however, surged back to knot the score at 16. The teams were tied four more times shortly thereafter, setting up a 21-all score following a Springfield termination.
Consecutive kills from Sheperd, Cowan and Julia Strum gave the Bobcats three set points, one of which Springfield staved off with a successful attack before Cowan’s seventh kill of the set gave BGHS the 1-0 lead.
“We definitely started off a little slow,” Brokaw said. “We just needed to warm up and fix what we were doing. In the end, we made the adjustments we needed to.”
The two teams split the first six points of the second set, but a 4-0 run from Bowling Green that featured kills from Cowan, Brokaw and Tara Hastings helped get the Bobcats going.
An ace from Ruthenberg and a pair of kills from Brokaw highlighted a 5-0 run moments later for a 12-5 lead.
Bowling Green saw its lead trimmed to as few as three at 19-16, but closed the set on a 6-0 run that featured a pair of kills from Brokaw and one termination apiece from Camera, Hastings and Juliana Firsdon.
“We made a lot of hitting adjustments in the second set,” Mathias said. “I feel like we were funneling the ball too much to our outsides, and we needed to start funneling the ball to our middles and right side. (Once we did that), we continued to score points off those options.”
The Bobcats (13-5) kept the momentum going with 12 of the first 16 points in the third set, a run capped by a block from Hastings and Firsdon.
That set up a strong finish from Cowan, who had back-to-back kills for an 11-point lead and terminations on four of five points for a 22-8 lead.
An ace and a kill from Sheperd put the Bobcats on the brink before a termination from Natalee Harris finished off the match.
Strum (5), Firsdon (4) and Camera (3) combined for 12 kills overall.
“They made the adjustments I asked them to make on offense and defense,” Mathias said. “We didn’t have the unforced errors and missed serves that we had in the first set, and I think we put our game faces on.
“(The girls) realized they were going to have to go out there and work for it, and we did. We went out and worked for it in the second and third sets, and they finished.
“I think overall we faced a little adversity, and we actually came through in the end and did really well.”
