Focused, Group Effort Helps BHS Volleyball Team Capture Championship at Home Tournament
By Chris Johnson on September 16, 2024
A lot of things need to fall in place for a high school volleyball team to be the last one standing in a tournament.
Stamina, riding the waves of momentum that are prevalent from match to match, and contributions from everybody in the rotation are just a few of those factors.
On Saturday, Bridgeport excelled at all of them and on a day that started and ended with a match against fellow state powerhouse Shady Spring, the Indians indeed were the last team standing at their 12-team home invitational tournament.
BHS finished the day a perfect 6-0 and only lost one out of 13 total sets. The Indians are now 20-3-1 on the season.
In pool play on Saturday, the Indian began with 25-21, 25-11 victories against Shady Spring. They followed with 25-10 and 25-13 victories against Independence and secured the top seed for bracket play with 25-14 and 25-12 victories against Washington.
In the gold bracket quarterfinals, BHS took care of business against Wayne with 25-12 and 25-9 victories. In the semifinals, the Indians defeated Greenbrier East in the first set, 25-12, and then advanced to the title round with a thrilling 26-24 victory.
The day closed by facing Shady Spring once again. The Indians took Game 1 by a 25-9 score. Shady handed BHS its only set loss, 25-11, before the Indians won the deciding Game 3, 15-10.
“I thought we started slow in pool play,” BHS coach Ali Burton said. “When we got to bracket play, they came out focused.
“We’ve hosted this for quite a few years now and I think they just said, ‘We want to win it.’ I told them, we might as well because we are going to be here all day.”
The Indians jumped out to an 8-0 lead in Game 1 against Wayne. State player of the year contender Myleigh Smell delivered her fourth kill of the game to make it 15-3. She later had back-to-back kills to make it 23-9.
Taylor Randolph sent down a kill for the final point of the 25-12 victory.
As has been the case for several matches in a row, the Indians’ used a strong service game from Salam Rajjoub to build sizeable lead in Game 2 against the Pioneers. She had an ace to make it 8-2. Smell followed with another kill on the next play and the Indians cruised from there for the 25-9 victory.
The Indians started perhaps even stronger against Greenbrier East. They built a 10-0 lead with Smell sending down two more kills along the way.
Later there was a stretch where Smell had back-to-back kills and Kennedy Wolfe served an ace for a 15-2 lead.
While kills from one of the state’s elite players is nothing new, the serving of Wolfe throughout the day was a development that provided a much-needed boost for the Indians.
“Kennedy’s serving was huge for us today,” Burton said.
After putting away the Spartans in Game 1, 25-12, the second game appeared headed in a similar direction. Wolfe’s second ace of the game made it 8-3. But Greenbrier East then crept back into it and even led at 11-10.
It was a back-and-forth affair the rest of the way. Wolfe had aces on consecutive serves to put Bridgeport up 23-19. But Greenbrier East then went on a 5-1 run to tie it 25.
After going up by one, the Indians secured the win on Kaylee Enfield’s ace which made it 26-24.
The Indians came out on fire in the first game of the title match with Shady Spring.
Smell, Randolph and Calleigh Morgan all had multiple kills and Wolfe had notched another ace by the time it was 14-4.
Bridgeport closed out the Game 1 25-9 victory with no drama. The second and third games would offer plenty though.
The Indians could never get anything going for an extended period in Game 2 as the Tigers slowly built a sizeable lead at 17-7 before closing it out on an 8-4 run to force a deciding Game 3 for the title.
“The mental side of this game is tough,” Burton said. “And we had some challenges, which is good. That’s how we get better.
“Nobody backs down after you play a set that you know you shouldn’t have. We knew that wasn’t the Shady team that beat Woodrow that played us in the first set.”
The Indians received a huge boost from Kloey Martinez in Game 3 as she came up with a handful of clutch defensive plays to help her team build a comfortable 8-2 lead.
“She was down on herself earlier and I told her, ‘Listen, as long as you are out there, you can make a play on the ball.’ She got her confidence back and she made a lot of plays in the back row that we had to have.”
Rajjoub sent down consecutive kills to give Bridgeport a 13-9 lead. Shady came back with one final point before the Indians secured the title with two straight points to close out the 15-10 victory.
Next up for the Indians is a tri-match vs Lewis County and Preston that will be played at Robert L. Bland Middle School on Wednesday.
BHS will then play in another Saturday tournament as it travels to Greenbrier East.
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