High school volleyball: Brookside finds groove in time, fights back to down Keystone in five sets

LAGRANGE — If Brookside goes on to win a second Lorain County League volleyball championship this season, Tuesday night's match with rival Keystone might just prove to be the turning point. The Cardinals trailed 2-1 before flipping the switch in dominant fashion and claiming a 25-20, 19-25, 17-25, 25-12, 15-7 win to improve to 3-2 overall and 3-0 in the LCL. "That's a really good team," Brookside coach Jenn Larrick said of Keystone. "I'm kind of shocked that we pulled it off. Keystone is a very well-rounded team and our defense was floating around way too much until we got it corrected." Despite racing out to a 13-4 lead, the Cardinals had to hold off Keystone in the first set as the Wildcats came all the way back to grab a 16-15 lead. But Brookside closed strong, getting kills from Jenna Rothman and Paige Grobolsek. The Wildcats (1-3, 1-2) only trailed for one point in the second and third sets as they took control of the match with stellar play at the net against the struggling Cardinals defense. Brianne Guyeska had eight of her team-high 16 kills to go with seven kills from Brooke Smith, five from SaVanna Bonk and four from Taylor Whitney, who made her first start of the year. Brookside didn't help itself, though, gift-wrappingd 16 points for the Wildcats on a combination of hitting, setting and service errors. Whatever Larrick said between the third and fourth sets, however, worked like a charm as Brookside rediscovered its game. The Cards went up 21-8 behind the play of Rothman and Leah Musall with Rothman getting four of her team-high 13 kills and one of her match-high eight block-kills. "We just didn't have energy and we talked about what we were doing wrong and were able to fix it," Rothman said. "We have a lot of new players and everyone hasn't had a chance to play together. It's just taking some time to get used to each other." Musall, who is getting time at outside hitter in Brookside's revamped offense, also had four kills in the fourth set, setting up a race to 15 in the fifth set. "We really took a step back in sets two and three from what we had been playing so far this year," said Musall, who had 11 kills, 11 assists and four blocks in the win. "We actually talked about setting the middle more (in the fourth), but it just worked out that I was able to get some good hits." Rothman got Brookside off to a quick 6-3 start in the fifth with a pair of kills and a combo-block kill with Grobolsek before rotating off the front row. Enter freshman middle hitter Savannah Dixon, who played her best stretch of the night with three kills and a block-kill to help keep the Cardinals unbeaten in league play. "Our defense fell apart," said Keystone coach Kristen Walsh about the difference from the first three sets to the final two. "Our defense was rock solid. Our serve receive was on point and we just got lazy is what really happened. I don't think we were overconfident, I just don't think we have that drive to finish off an opponent right now." Contact James Brady at 329-7135 or jbrady_ct@yahoo.com. Brookside 25-19-17-25-15, Keystone 20-25-25-12-7 KILLS – (B) Jenna Rothman 13, Leah Musall 11; (K) Brienne Guyeska 16, Brooke Smith 9. ASSISTS – (B) Shyanne Shinsky 24, Musall 11; (K) McKenna Saterlee 33. DIGS – (B) Ava Miller 19, Shinsky 8, Musall 5; (K) Jayden Whitacre 19, Saterlee 16. ACES – (B) Miller 2; (K) Grace Scott 2, Taylor Whitney 2. BLOCK-KILL – (B) Rothman 8, `Musall 4; (K) Whitney 1.