Niles volleyball coach Jenny Nate watched her players and noticed the fan support Monday for her volleyball team against Brandywine.

Extended Viking runs made the Niles student section louder and helped the Vikings beat the Bobcats, 25-18, 25-10, 25-20.

“We had a huge student section,” Nate said. “Our fans are fantastic and it gets our girls very excited. What I’ve had to do is help relax our girls a little bit. They get so much power and adrenaline going I almost have to give them a few points to help kind of calm them down and get them focused and remind them to shut the crowd out. We want the crowd and we feed off of that, but we have to use that positively. It takes a little while to do that, especially when we have a lot of freshman on the court.”

A 14-3 run in game one helped the Niles take a 24-13 lead. The Vikings went on to win game one on a kill from Bella Rasler.

Niles jumped out to a 20-5 lead in game two. The Vikings got three service aces during that stretch from Breannan Love. Kelsey Barton’s service ace clinched game two for Niles.

In game three, Brandywine couldn’t overcome an 8-2 Niles run, which gave the Vikings a 22-16 lead. Barton’s service ace ended the game and the match.

“Our serve receive and passes got cleaned up,” Nate said. “We got our feet to balls. Once we can get the ball into (setter) Kelsey’s (Barton) hands we can run our offense and we’re pretty solid. We have a lot of weapons at the net.”

Barton finished with 20 assists, while Rasler had eight kills and Alexandria Smith had six for Niles.

Sydney Carlson led Brandywine offensive with seven kills.

“Our offense was much better,” Brandywine coach Carrie Bidwell said. “It actually helped us tonight to have a substantial defense and have a good block on the other side of the court so my hitters could recognize how to work around a big block and how to work around a good defense. My hitters showed a lot more willingness to be aggressive.”

 

Niles d. Brandywine 3-0

Set scores

25-18, 25-10, 25-20

 

Individual statistics

Kills: Sydney Carlson (B) 7, Olivia DePriest (B) 4, Makena Bowen (B) 2, Bella Rasler (N) 8, Alexandria Smith (N) 6, Jazmin Brann (N) 5

Blocks: DePriest (B) 3, Brann (N) 5, Rasler (N) 4, Smith (N) 3, Megan Kohler (N) 2

Assists: Emily Erwin (B) 68, Kelsey Barton (N) 20

Aces: DePriest (B) 2, Breannan Love (N) 4, Holly Walker (N) 3, Barton (N) 3, Courtney Nixon (N) 2

Digs: Abbey Cole (B) 7, Carlson (B) 4, Justine Sater (B) 3, Love (N) 9, Rasler (N) 3

 

Varsity records

Brandywine 15-17, Niles 19-8-3