Brandywine’s Jessy Cooper sets the ball Wednesday night against Coloma. The Bobcats defeated the Comets in five sets to remain undefeated in Lakeland Conference play. (Daily Star photo/RON HARNER)

By DON EDEN

Niles Daily Star

Behind the support of 40 faithful Brandywine students yelling “Bobcat power” and “Bobcat pride” throughout, the volleyball team beat Coloma in a five-set thriller by scores of 25-22, 21-25, 25-22, 14-25 and 15-10 for the first time since 2003.

“The crowd will be thanked for their support,” stated Brandywine coach Nikki Bush. “Lanisha (Brann) really had the confidence tonight serving and the two seniors (Kelsey Prestly and Lauren Leonard) each did an outstanding, amazing job for us.”

Both of the victories in the odd matches were finished by the junior Brann with four and six straight points respectively to complete the comebacks and started out the crucial final set with a trio of tallies, which Coloma (16-12-1, 2-2 Lakeland Conference) could not overcome.

“Brandywine is much improved over last year and their middles (Prestly and Leonard) were playing fantastic,” noted Coloma coach Matt Ford. “Both teams played hard and deserved to win.”

Leonard led the victors with 21 kills with her classmate Prestly shooting down 17 strikes, with the former also accomplishing 11 digs and six aces.

Sophomore Jessy Cooper was responsible for 33 of the assists for the Bobcats.

“This is the first time beating Coloma and playing middle, so I am very, very happy with all the girls on the team,” expressed Prestly. “The fourth game we got frazzled and wanted to get it over as fast as we could.  This makes us feel real good about the conference and district tournaments.”

Brandywine (27-10, 5-0 Lakeland Conference) won each game in front of the students with all of them switching sides for the fifth game to assure the victory.

“We usually are a good comeback team that has waited too long in past years,” concluded Bush. “We just wanted that last game more than they did.”