By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
DOWAGIAC - First-year Dowagiac coach Carl Greulich hopes that his varsity volleyball team is learning from its losses.
Monday night the Chieftains got another lesson from a squad that Greulich knows very well.
Brandywine swept Dowagiac in three games in a final tune up for its Lakeland Conference showdown with undefeated Coloma Wednesday night.
The Bobcats, also undefeated in the Lakeland Conference, defeated the Chieftains, 27-25, 25-15 and 2522.
Bobcats' coach Gary Whitney said that his squad needed a match like Monday night's to get ready for the Lady Comets.
He wanted his team to improve from its performance from Saturday, but not have to play any extra games.
Greulich noted that his team has come a long way this season and playing a quality team like Brandywine will only make them better.
Whitney said that his team played better than it did on Saturday, but not as well as it will need to on Wednesday night.
No one was having fun in a very tense first game.
The Lady Bobcats (25-14-2) pulled out the 27-25 victory, but Dowagiac gave them everything it had.
Dowagiac trailed early on, 8-2, after Brandywine's Kendra Zache served up three consecutive winners.
The Lady Bobcats increased their advantage to 17-13 before Dowagiac's Brittney Reist had three consecutive winning serves.
Brandywine appeared to have taken control of the match as it led 23-18, however, Dowagiac rallied and eventually cut the lead to 24-23 on five straight service winners by Kim Luthringer.
Emily Whitney's dump over the net gave the Lady Bobcats a 25-24 advantage.
Reist's tip moments later tied the game at 25.
Brandywine then scored the next two points to earn the victory.
It was all Brandywine in the second game of the night thanks to the serving of Brandywine's Nikki Cooper.
Cooper served up 10 consecutive winners to give the Lady Bobcats an 18-6 lead.
Brandywine then cruised home with the 10-point win.
The Lady Bobcats looked to be headed to an easy victory in the third game when Dowagiac caught fire.
Leading 12-6, Dowagiac started to chip away at the Brandywine advantage.
Trailing 23-20, Dowagiac roared back and cut th eldad to 23-21 forcing the Lady Bobcats into a time out. Dowagiac would get no closer, however, as Brandywine secured the victory.
Cooper led Brandywine with 11 kills, three aces and nine digs. The Lady Bobcats also got 10 kills from Kendra Zache and nine digs from Kelli Zache.
Emily Whitney finished with 30 assists. Nikki Martyniuk had two blocks.
Dowagiac got six kills from Reist and three kills each from Luthringer and Jill Billingham.
Reist also had a team-high seven digs. Ashley Urbanski added six digs and four assists.
Lindsay Tyler and Luthringer each had two aces. Brittany Bruens had five assists.
Brandywine will host Coloma on Wednesday with first place in the Lakeland Conference hanging in the balance. Both teams enter the contest with 6-0 records.
The varsity match is scheduled to begin at approximately 7:30 p.m.
Brandywine split its freshmen and junior varsity matches Monday night.
The freshmen squad defeated Dowagiac in three games, 26-24, 17-25 and 15-6.The junior varsity lost to Dowagiac in three games, 13-25, 25-23 and 12-1