Despite the raucous home crowd in attendance, a series of several brilliantly played rallies and a multitude of deft kill-shots; the Brandywine Bobcats volleyball program couldn’t find a consistent rhythm and dropped its Lakeland Conference match against its arch-rival, the Buchanan Bucks, Tuesday.

The Bucks used their superior height, skill, athleticism and know how to overwhelm the young Bobcats on the court; scoring a 3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-12) win for their efforts.

Brandywine coach Carl Greulich said that the advantage the Bucks had in individual match ups on the hardwood were just too much for his team to overcome.

“If you were to look at where we match up with them and where we don’t; you’d see that we didn’t really match up with them well all the way around. They’re tall and can jump, and the ones who weren’t tall could jump, their passing was on point, they could easily run their offense and we could not,” the coach said.

Though the final score would show that the Brandywine was swept, the Bobcats fought tenaciously in the match’s earlier stages; coming up with a bevy of rally-saving shots and clutch plays when they needed them to stem the tide from flowing Buchanan’s way.

“I told the girls that I was happy with their effort out there. We battled hard for the first two games, but there is only so much you can do against a team with their size and speed that can execute their plays like they did today.”

The Bobcats will hope to rebound on Thursday when they host Lake Michigan Catholic at 5:30 p.m.

 

Brandywine statistics

Kills

Sydney Carlson 10

Olivia DePriest 4

Michaela Hartline 3

Rachelle Dodge 1

Abby Cole 1

 

Digs

Cole 11

Carlson 4

Michaela Hartline 4

Justine Sater 3

Victoria Ebersol 1

 

Assists

Emily Erwin 19

 

Blocks

DePriest 2

Carlson 1

 

Aces

DePriest 2

Cole 1

Michaela Hartline 1