By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
NILES – A 3-0 loss to River Valley last week seemed to be a wake up call for the Lady Bucks varsity volleyball team. Host Buchanan swept Cassopolis 25-13, 25-11, 25-16 as the Lady Bucks improved to 1-1 Lakeland Conference action. The Rangers fall to 1-1.
"After coming out and losing 3-0 to River Valley last week, we have been real focused," Buchanan Coach Lisa Holok said of her teams effort Wednesday night. "They have been working as hard as I have seen all year so I knew they would be prepared. They deserve the win. They have been mentally focused for the last couple of days. I knew they would be on top of their game."
After a 2-2 start of game one, senior Lindsey Borr strung together 10 consecutive service points for the Lady Bucks, including four aces to take a 12-2 lead. "We are a tough serving team, we usually get a lot of aces. Our ace percentage is very high right now," Holok said. "We just need to work on being a better side-out team."
Cass on the other hand couldn't string more than two points together during the game as they dropped the opener. "Looking at their face's their confidence wasn't here tonight," Cassopolis coach Erica Boulanger said of her teams effort. "Not to use this as an excuse, but we have had a couple girls out ill. They just didn't come out to play. That's the bottom line."
In game two, of the three game match the Lady Bucks Jayme O'Bryant spotted her team with a 5-0 lead serving up three aces. After picking up a side out Mattie Arndt tacked on another four points aided by a pair of aces for a 10-1 lead. Buchanan cruised to the win by once again not allowing the Lady Rangers to string together any big runs, something that the Lady Bucks have struggled with in their earlier matches this season. "Every time we get stuck in that rut and we dig ourselves deep and we need to come out and they need to push it. They just need to take it point by point, not look at the scoreboard and try to go. Tonight it just didn't work out," Boulanger said.
The longest service run for Cass came in game three. With the Lady Bucks once again in control of the game leading 19-7, Cassopolis ran off a seven point stretch to bring the lead down to five points 19-14 but couldn't shave off anymore points of the Lady Bucks lead.
Sophomore Courtney Miller led the Lady Bucks on the front row with 12 kills. "She (Miller) started last year on the right side as a freshman, so we moved her to the outside this year and she has been responding really well at that position. She's definitely our go-to girl in the front row. She did a really good job tonight," Holok said.
Buchanan stats
Courtney Miller 6 digs, 12 kills
Emily Ross 30 assists, 5 kills, 2 aces
Anna Callahan 5 blocks, 6 kills
Mattie Arndt 4 kills, 3 blocks, 5 aces
Lindsey Borr 2 kills, 4 aces, 15 digs
Holly Lucas 10 digs, 4 aces
Jayme Obryant 2 aces, 9 digs
Katie Backus 2 kills
Keriann Sears 4 kills, 1 ace