BRIDGMAN — A slow start couldn’t keep visiting Brandywine from capturing its first district volleyball championship since 2003.

The Bobcats had to battle the Bees throughout the opening set, finally pulling out a 27-25 victory on its way to a 3-0 sweep of Bridgman and the Class C district title.

Brandywine won the second two sets with relative ease, scoring 25-15 and 25-16 wins over the Bees.

“As a coach sometimes you wish you could step out on the court and do things for them when you don’t feel like they’re doing their job,” Brandywine coach Nikki Bush, who a sophomore on the 2003 Brandywine championship team said. “But you’ve just got to be really encouraging and be cheerleading from the bench.”

In the opening set, Bridgman had a pair of chances to earn the victory as it led 24-23 and 25-24. A trio of miscues by the Bobcats allowed the Bees to erase a 22-15 advantage and eventually tie the match at 23-23.

Senior Kelsey Prestly averted the first game-point with a kill, while Bridgman made a mistake of its own on the second point to knot the match again, this time at 25-25.

After a long rally with the Bobcats holding game-point, senior Morgan Smallwood drove down a spike to end the first set.

The Bees opened the second set with a service error and the Bobcats pounced on the chance to get out to a big lead early on.

Smallwood’s tip gave Brandywine a 3-1 advantage and when senior Lauren Leonard had four straight service winners, including an ace, the lead reached 6-1.

The Bobcats (40-8-4) continued to build on their lead and following three consecutive winners, including and ace, from Ashley DeJonge, Brandywine led 10-3.

Solid blocking up front from Smallwood, Jessy Cooper, Prestly and Leonard get the Bobcats rolling. The lead reached 17-7 on three straight aces from Cooper and from there Brandywine cruised to a 2-0 advantage.

Cooper got the Bobcats off to a 2-0 start in the third set and after the Bees cut the lead to 6-4, DeJonge rolled off three more service winners with a pair of aces before Smallwood served four straight points with a trio of aces to turn the set into a rout. DeJonge’s serving made it 10-5 and when Smallwood was finished, the Bobcats’ lead was an insurmountable 18-9.

Smallwood then finished off Bridgman with a kill to begin the celebration for Brandywine.

“This definitely wasn’t our ‘A’ game tonight,” Bush said. “We were a little off. One of our girls was sick (Lauren Leonard), so we just had to dig deep and get the win. We played better in game two and game three. We had better hits in those games, but we still weren’t playing smart.”

The Bobcats will now head to Constantine for the Class C regional tournament, which begins on Tuesday.

Brandywine opens up with Mendon, a team it has gone 1-1-1 with this season. That match is scheduled for 8 p.m.

“If we work hard we know we can beat them,” Bush said. “We need to be smart hitters and find holes on the court, instead of continuously hitting to defenders.”

In the first semifinal, Lawton (33-6-3) will take on Gobles (36-7) at 6 p.m. The regional final with be Thursday at 7 p.m.

Brandywine…3

Bridgman…0

Brandywine statistics

Kills

Lauren Leonard 13

Kelsey Prestly 12

Digs

Leonard 13

Jessy Cooper 9

Aces

Ashley DeJonge 4

Cooper 3

Assists

Cooper 26

Bridgman statistics

Kills

Alyssa Krynicky 6

Rachel Stemm 3

Digs

Ashley Pratt 14

McKenzie Rathgeb 6

Aces

Lisa Bowman 3

Varsity records: Brandywine 40-8-4, Bridgman 25-19-7