Blue Streaks believe, prevail

KARL PEARSON
Star Beacon

August 29, 2008 05:08 am

— MADISON TOWNSHIP — Having a little confidence in one’s teammates and their abilities can make a world of difference in a team’s performance.
It took the Madison volleyball team a game to have enough faith in all facets of its play to get going, but once the Blue Streaks got rolling, they were able to fight through even the roughest spots to outlast Conneaut in four games, 19-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-21.
It helped Madison (5-0) maintain an unblemished record in the early stages of the season.
Having confidence in each other is the philosophy second-year Madison coach Brynn Ryan has tried to get her team to embrace. It seems to be taking root.
“The girls have to have confidence that they’re going to get good passing, a good set and a chance to get a good hit,” she said. “Tonight, it took a while, but I think by the second game, we got pretty good passing, great setting and were able to get some excellent hits.”
In a long, tough match, Ryan has also emphasized beating opponents with better conditioning and a disciplined approach to the game.
“These girls know they have to be well conditioned,” she said. “Every day before practice, they have to run a mile. On Fridays, they’re timed in the mile. If they don’t beat their time from the week before, they have to run suicides.
“We also worked very hard on serving. They have to hit 10 serves in a row every day in practice.”
Conneaut (2-2) got off to a strong start, building a lead as big as 20-13 in the first game as it rode the middle hitting and blocking of Nichele Johnson and big contributions from outside hitters Sarah Campbell and Justine VanCise. But it also served as a wakeup call for the Blue Streaks.
“Losing that first game got us going,” junior Juliana Brotzman, who led Madison with 22 points and 11 aces on 28-of-34 spiking, said. “We knew we had to pick it up after that. We had to get our serves and our hits in.”
Two ace spikes by Brotzman, three by senior Holly Boggs, two more by senior libero Megan Boggs and another two from senior outside hitter Taylor Southall were just enough to push Madison through to a win in the second game. The game was tied as late as 23-all before Brotzman got the decisive points.
“I think we got our heads in the game in the second game,” Megan Boggs, who finished with eight points and was 49-of-50 passing, said. “We tried to do a better job of keeping the ball alive in that game. After Brotz (Brotzman) got a couple of hits in, that got us going.”
“We usually start out a little flat,” senior setter Breanna Wilson, who scored 17 points and produced 13 ace sets, said. “That second game, we just got our heads into it.”
The third and fourth games followed a similar formula to the second. The third game was tied as late as 19-all before Madison broke away. The fourth game was tied to 17-all before Madison gradually pulled away.
“We started off OK, but we just had too many unforced errors,” Conneaut coach Paula Ghiz said. “They were our own mistakes. We had a little bit of a letdown on our positioning and where we needed to be on defense.”
Each team had balanced scoring. Sarah Campbell led Conneaut with 20 points and eight aces on 9-of-12 spiking. Rachel Pryately contributed 18 points and three aces on 7-of-10 spiking. Tanisha Ford added 17 points and had two aces on 6-of-9 spiking, Kelsey Prevot added 16 points, while Johnson finished with 13 points, five aces on 10-of-16 spiking and four ace blocks.
Southall had 18 points to back Brotzman and added five aces on 13-of-17 spiking. Holly Boggs had 15 points, including four ace serves, six aces on 12-of-20 spiking, added two ace dinks and was 24-of-24 passing. Kelly Ashby contributed 12 points with three ace serves and had four aces on 7-of-9 spiking. Sophomore Kelsey Koskinen chipped in with six ace spikes, an ace block and an ace dink.
“I think the girls have done well so far,” Ryan said. “I hope we can keep building from here.”

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