DANE FUELLING
WZBD.com
FORT WAYNE – It was just a regular home run swing by Bellmont’s big hitter, Delaney Lawson, at Bishop Luers Thursday night, smashing the ball with full force and leaving no chance for a dig by the Knights.
For the nearly 100 Bellmont fans, it was something they had seen the senior do so many times before.
999 times before, to be exact.
That kill put the Braves up 11-1 in the second set and was followed by an oddly-timed time out by coach Craig Krull, but the pause was intentional as the coach went out of his way to celebrate Lawson’s 1000th career kill. Teammates busted out a sign from behind the bench to honor Delaney’s accomplishment.
They celebrated the kill by playing one of the most dominating 15-minute stretches of high school volleyball a fan may ever see.
Coach Krull’s Braves did not lose another point the rest of the set, absolutely breaking the spirit of the Luers players and fans. That streak continued into the third set and the Braves easily dispatched their second Bishop of the week after beating Dwenger on Tuesday.
“I was just happy with the way we stuck with it,” said Krull after the match after his team played somewhat sloppily in the opening set, winning 25-13. “We didn’t lose focus and screw around.” They took the second set 25-1 and finished it off at 25-8.
“I was happy overall with the entire night and proud of Delaney getting 1000.”
Lawson finished the night with an incredible 16 kills in 19 attempts, finishing without an attack error.
The team was firing from both sides and sometimes in the middle, especially when Alyssa Gumble was hitting. The sophomore, who didn’t see much playing time last year on varsity but will be a household name soon for the Braves, had eight kills in nine attempts. Jackie Sutter finished with nine kills and MaryKate Scheumann had ten.
Bellmont kept setter Hailey Cole busy and she showed why the Braves are ranked so highly early in 2023 with 36 assists and five kills on the occasions she chose to play the ball over instead of feeding a teammate, catching Luers off guard every time.
Sami Christen was excellent, as well, picking up 18 digs and wearing out her arm when she was on serve during the Braves’ long streak in the second. She finished with five aces.
Bellmont will travel to Yorktown for both of the next two Saturdays. The morning matches on the 26th will be broadcast on WZBD. During the next week they will travel to Concordia Tuesday (22nd) and host South Adams Thursday (24th). The intra-county match between the Starfires and Braves will also be on WZBD, 92.7 FM.
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