BROWNSTOWN

Brownstown Central opened up early leads in all three sets to defeat North Harrison 25-14, 25-15, and 25-13 in a Mid-Southern Conference volleyball match on the Braves’ floor Tuesday night.

Braves coach Jennifer Shade was pleased with the Braves’ performance.

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“Our goals for this game were to be ahead at point five because we seem to dig a hole, and we have a hard time coming out of that,” Shade said. We wanted to be ahead and we did that.

“We wanted to not allow the team back into the game. Once we started winning we had to make sure that we executed so that we stayed on top, and the girls did that. I felt we did a good job of accomplishing that.”

In the first set, the Braves (9-16, 7-1 MSC) jumped on top 3-0 to lead all the way.

An ace serve by Keeli Darlage put Brownstown Central on top 8-3. The Braves were leading 12-7 before back-to-back kills by Claire Pace, and Darlage followed by two errors by the Cougars made the score 16-7. Set point came on an attacking error by the visitors.

In the second set the Braves broke a 2-2 tie with three straight points to lead the rest of the way. Back-to-back kills by Lainey Darlage gave the Braves an 8-5 lead.

After the Cougars closed to 11-9, the Braves scored seven straight points to take an 18-9 lead. The final point in that string came on a kill by Ashley Schroer. Set point came on an attacking error by the Cougars.

In the third set, a kill by Mallory Nierman gave the Braves a 7-2 lead, and another attack by Nierman increased Brownstown’s lead to 12-5. Another kill by Keeli Darlage increased the Braves lead to 17-9.

Back-to-back kills by Brooke Meyer pushed the Braves lead to 21-10.

The Braves had 41 attack kills with Keelli Darlage topping the team with 14. Schroer and Pace each had six kills.

“They had the one middle hitter (Lilly Hattton) that could hit the ball,” Shade said. “Overall I felt like we dominated the net, and we were able to make plays, and maybe overpower them a little bit,”

“I never worry about my defense. The girls always work hard to keep balls up off the floor. I felt that was there, and we made good passes so that we could run an offense.“

The Braves were 68-for-72 behind six aces in serves with Richayla Huff making all 17 with two aces.

“When you play good teams you have to make sure you serve aggressive so they can’t run their offense. We continue to work on that,” Shade said. “We still make a few more errors than I’d like but overall we did fine.”

Brownstown will travel to Salem Thursday for their final MSC match.