One of the main points of emphasis for Bradford volleyball coach Steve Burgess coming into this season was consistency. That meant cutting down on some of the mental errors that cost the Lady Owls matches in the past.
Bradford’s consistency on Tuesday night earned the team its first victory of the season, as the Lady Owls defeated Elk Catholic 25-21, 25-21, 19-25, 25-22 to move to 1-1 on the new campaign.
It was the Lady Crusaders who got off to the good start, jumping out to an 8-4 lead in the first set. But a pair of nice runs spurred by some excellent net play gave the Owls the momentum.
“I thought all the hitters did really good,” Burgess said. “They were aggressive. Ashton McGriff and Brinya Moffett had our leading kills numbers. They did a great job. Both Tara and Tori Moonan did a good job in the middle too.”
The senior duo of McGriff and Moffett both recorded double-digit kills for Bradford, with McGriff notching 18 and Moffett finishing with 13.
The second set was very much a back-and-forth affair scattered with impressive rallies and some nice shots from both sides.
Bradford made a few mental errors that allowed the Crusaders to keep things close, the kind of mistakes that Burgess wants his players to work on avoiding.
“Mistakes have been an issue for us in the preseason and right now,” he said. “We talked about playing consistently and when we play with five errors or less, we’re usually in the game. But when that number starts creeping above five, that’s when we know we’re starting to get into trouble.”
Fortunately for Burgess, Bradford’s aggressiveness allowed the team to overcome some of those flaws.
“We talked about being aggressive and hitting the ball hard,” he said. “I thought all the girls did that at some point. Defensively we struggled a little bit but I have to give my props to the front row in this match.”
With a two sets to none advantage, Bradford gave itself a bit of breathing room and looked poised for a sweep after taking an 8-7 lead early in the third set. But those aforementioned errors started to creep up on the Owls, allowing ECC to go on a 9-1 run and take a 16-9 lead. The Crusaders would hold off a late Bradford rally to take the third set.
Burgess said that the Owls started to back off a bit at the net, yielding too many easy shots by the opposition.
“We didn’t block as well as we can,” he said. “We practiced blocking a lot and we didn’t do that as much tonight as we should have.”
There were some very nice diving efforts in the third set from the likes of sophomore Erica Marshall (seven digs), junior Britney Rounsville (five), and McGriff (four).
“In that set that we dropped, the errors were definitely there,” he added. “Most of the time we’re our own worst enemy in that area. But I’m glad to see the girls were resilient and came back, move the match forward and take control.”
Take control they did, as whatever Burgess said between the third and fourth sets must have worked. The Owls opened up a 12-5 lead to start the fourth set, rediscovering the aggressiveness they had displayed earlier in the match.
ECC made a valiant effort to even things up, eventually tying the score at 22-22. But Bradford’s front row proved to much; the Owls simply overpowered the Crusaders to take the last three points and the match.
One area that Burgess saw marked improvement in was the Owls’ passing and floor coverage.
“I thought we covered the floor a lot better,” he said. “The passing was outstanding tonight; that leads to your offense, and the girls on the net tonight did a great job being aggressive and getting kills. I thought Lauryn Kahle was outstanding with her setting tonight.”
The senior finished the match with 81 assists for Bradford.
With their first ‘W’ under their belts, the Lady Owls will look to make it back-to-back wins on Thursday when they travel to Sheffield.
