[Baltimore Sun] No. 4 Reservoir passes late-season test, beats No. 2 Broadneck, 3-1
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As the volleyball season winds down to a close, No. 4 Reservoir was still searching for a quality win against a quality opponent. On Tuesday in their home gym, the Gators got it in a big way, defeating No. 2 Broadneck, 22-25, 25-19, 25-20, 25-12, in a county-crossover match.
The games, which match schools from Anne Arundel County against schools from Howard County at a similar level of competition, are a great way to prepare for next week’s state playoffs. Reservoir made sure it didn’t waste the chance.
Tiana Copp led the Gators (11-2) with 11 kills, while Marin Esch chipped in nine. Anna Graves 14 kills and two blocks to lead Broadneck. Sydney Lawrence also contributed 26 assists for the Bruins.
The matchup could very well be a preview of a Class 4A state tournament game, if the two teams make it that far.
Things didn’t start out very well for the Gators. Although the first set was close throughout, Broadneck (11-2) began to pull away in the middle of the set. After a double hit was called on a Gator, the Bruins found themselves with a 16-11 lead. Reservoir mounted a rally and did end up cutting the lead to 19-18 on a Esch kill, but Broadneck hung on. The Bruins scored six of the final 10 points of the set to take an early lead, 25-22.
“We just needed to settle in and make some adjustments,” Reservoir coach Carole Ferrante said. “They play at a little different pace than we’re used to. We just needed to settle in and get into our plan. Then we started to play our game.”
Reservoir began to play better in the second set. The Gators, behind the service of Celina Johnson and Copp, built a 6-1 lead and never trailed in the set. Reservoir was much better with its serve-receive and passing, and dominated the battle at the net. Reservoir recorded a 25-19 win to tie the match at a set apiece.
The third set was much closer as Broadneck began to correct some of the hitting errors from the previous set. With the set tied at 7, Reservoir reeled off six of the next eight points to take a 13-9 lead. The Bruins used an Anna Graves kill to cut the lead to 18-16. The Gators, however, got kills from Gabby Prather, Copp and Riley Ko down the stretch to take the third set, 25-20.
It was much the same in the fourth set. Broadneck’s defense tightened, but the Gators just kept finding holes. Two back-to-back kills by Prather gave Reservoir a 12-7 lead, and Reservoir coasted from there to a 25-12 set win to take the match.
“We just didn’t play well tonight,” Broadneck coach Tracey Regalbuto said. “[Reservoir] played great, so all credit to them. They beat us at just about everything.”
“We’ve been working hard in practice to get better and it paid off for us tonight,” said Prather, who will attend Hampton University to play volleyball next year. “It feels great to beat a quality program like Broadneck. It shows us we can play at the state level.”
For Ferrante, the win was special with this group of girls.
“I love this team and I love these girls,” Ferrante said. “We have our goals and we are driven in what we want to do. I feel like we’re very well rounded this year and I feel like we don’t have any glaring holes.”
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