John Bruce, Editor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by Holzer Health System.
CARROLL — Following a recent loss at Bishop Watterson and a first-set loss in which they felt like they gave it away, the Bloom-Carroll Bulldogs had to come together during a short break and refocus their efforts on Tuesday.
“We had a similar set to that last Saturday at Watterson, where they won and we didn’t respond very well.” Bloom-Carroll head coach Kyle McFerrin said, after the Bulldogs dropped Tuesday’s opening set. “We just talked in the huddle about how we knew this was going to be a fight. [Circleville] is a talented team, so we had to make sure that we were focused and taking care of ourselves.”
That discussion played out to perfection.
The Bulldogs (14-3, 9-0 MSL) stormed back after that disappointing opening set to defeat Circleville in four sets — a 24-26, 25-14, 25-8, 25-15 final — to take a commanding two-game advantage in the Mid-State League-Buckeye standings.
A white-hot streak from the service line late in the opening set from Circleville’s Jocelyn McLaughlin, including a set-winning ace, gave the Tigers a 26-24 victory in the first. The Bulldogs led throughout that opening set and were up 24-21 before McLaughlin toed the line to push her Tigers over the top.
Coming out of the timeout in between sets, the Bulldogs looked like a completely different team.
While they had controlled much of the opening set, the energy they played with made the second have a different feel.
Junior setter Renee Smith was finding hitters, forcing the Tigers’ defense to be out of position to slow the Bulldog attack. Hitters Maddie Fox, Kylee Reiser and Josie Burr all got into the act in the second as the Bulldogs coasted to a 25-14 set win.
The third was much of the same.
The Bulldogs’ attack was too much for Circleville to handle, even with the Tigers flying around defensively to keep rallies alive. The Tigers’ competitive nature kept plays alive, but it just meant that there were more swings for the Bulldogs’ hitters, and they obliged with a dominant 25-8 win.
While Ally Thornsley, McLaughlin and the Tigers (9-8, 6-3 MSL) continued to scratch and claw to stay in the match, the Bulldogs just continued to show the well-roundedness of their squad.
PHOTOS: Images from Bloom-Carroll’s win over Circleville
At the net, Ayla Mitchell got going with several big swings in the attack while, defensively, Reiser, Smith, Kylynne Sollberger and Azelin Morris refused to let a ball hit the deck when in the back row.
Burr and freshman Zoey Werstak were instrumental in the defensive effort, combining to be involved in six of the nine blocks for the Bulldogs, while Smith also served up a match-high six aces in the win.
“We started working on being a little more aggressive serving,” McFerrin said. “If we can’t get an ace, that’s fine, but we can still get them out of system. Let’s give ourselves a chance to at least set a block and get things moving defensively.”
The Bulldogs held off the Tigers for a strong 25-15 fourth-set victory to extend their MSL-Buckeye lead to two games with only four league matches left to play.
Statistically for Bloom-Carroll, Smith passed out 45 assists and had 20 digs, while Sollberger led the Bulldogs with 25 digs. On the attack, Mitchell had seven kills, while Burr had 12. Reiser added 16 kills and Fox posted a match-high 18 kills.
“She’s just playing with a lot of confidence right now,” McFerrin said of Fox. “You know how that goes in athletics. She struggled a little early, but was really, really good in the second, third and fourth sets tonight. She was ready all night, so when it was her turn, she was swinging and hit some smart shots when she had to. But when she could go get it, she did.”
The Bulldogs followed Tuesday’s win with a sweep of Liberty Union on Thursday. The Tigers, meanwhile, fell to Logan Elm in a four-set affair.
Heading into the weekend, Bloom-Carroll is now just a league win away from wrapping up the outright title.
And while the MSL-Buckeye title is important to the Bulldogs, the difficulty of the league and their non-conference schedule is what has prepared them for, hopefully, another long tournament run.
“We have to play tough teams, because we’re going to see tough teams down the road,” McFerrin said. “We always say that we don’t want our last game to be against the toughest team we play all year.”
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