By By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
NILES - For the third time this volleyball season, the Brandywine varsity volleyball team was able to defeat Niles Monday night. The Vikings were able to pull off one win in the second game 25-23, but the Bobcats were able to win the first game 25-16, third game 25-9 and fourth game 25-15 to give them their non-conference win at Niles High School.
Brandywine picked up its other two wins against the Vikings at the Buck Classic Tournament and Kalamazoo Hackett tournament earlier this season.
Brandywine was able to pull ahead of Niles 13-3 early in the first game. The Lady Vikes were having a hard time getting digs from Brandywine's hard hitting spikers and left the middle wide open for the Bobcats.
Niles was able to get back into the game when Brandywine made some errors on its side to give Niles some extra points. An ace by Kaylynn Stephenson was able to bring Niles within seven points to bring the score to 13-6. Brandywine was able to gain another point on a Vikings' error, but a tip from Mehgan Flynn kept Niles within seven points.
It seemed the Vikings were going to go catch up to the Bobcats. They were able to get within four points of Brandywine 11-15, but the Bobcats were once again able to spread the gap to nine 24-15. Flynn gave Brandywine the winning point when she tipped the ball out of bounds for Niles to give the Bobcats the 25-16 win.
Both teams were able to get points from the other teams' errors to start the second. Connie Brant and Nikki Cooper both hit the ball into the net on kill attempts and Kendra Zache served the ball into the net giving Niles an early 5-2 lead. But Niles' Karly Kennedy served and killed the ball into the net to keep Brandywine within two points. Another error on Niles' side gave brought the Bobcats within one point 5-4. Niles was able to rack in six points before Brandywine was able to score again. Melissa Olsen got her first block of the night when she blocked a kill from Brandywine's Kelli Zache. Two more errors on the Bobcats' side gave Niles the 8-4 lead. Another block from the Vikings on a kill from Nikki Martyniuk, a tip out of bounds from Cooper on Brandywine's side and an ace from Sam Brawley gave Niles the 11-4 lead.
Though Brandywine was able stay behind by a few points throughout the second game, the Vikings were able to claim the second match victory 25-23.
Brandywine let the second game get away, but dominated the third and fourth games. The Bobcats took the lead from the start and never let it go. The Vikings stayed close behind early on, but watched the gap grow bigger and bigger, going down by more than 12 points late in the game. Niles again had some troubles on defense, leaving a lot of open gaps and not digging the kills from the Bobcats, which hurt them in the end and gave Brandywine the 25-9 win.
The fourth game again proved to be too much for Niles. The Vikings were able to catch up from a big margin, but would quickly fall behind on errors. Kelli Zache's nine serves in a row helped lead the Bobcats to their final 25-15 win.
Amber Peters had 13 assists, eight digs, thee points and one ace, block and kill for the Vikings. Claire Molnar had seven points, six digs, three aces, two blocks and kills and one assist. Kenndy had four digs, three points, two aces and one kill. Sam Brawley had seven points, six digs. Olsen had six kills, two blocks. Kaylee Bonner had five digs, four points, Leigh Tyler had two points two aces. Stephenson had two points one ace and Flynn had four kills for Niles.
Emily Whitney had 42 assists, eight digs, four aces and four blocks for Brandywine. Nikki Cooper had 13 kills, nine digs.
Martyniuk had nine kills, five blocks. Ashley Antus had 12 digs, four aces. Katie Tuohy had 12 kills and Kelli Zache had eight digs for the Bobcats.
Niles travels to Mattawan Wednesday night for a SMAC crossover game at 7 p.m.
Brandywine is gearing up for its conference tournament this Saturday at Berrien Springs High School. Game times are TBA.