DANE FUELLING
WZBD.com
MaryKate Scheumann was ferocious on Thursday night.
The junior led all players with 17 kills, but it was the ferocity of each one, combined with the fact that she reached that number with only 21 attempts, that impressed the home crowd and made them forget about Tuesday.
The context of Thursday’s contest was three-fold.
-The Braves had played admirably against Bishop Dwenger and could have had a different outcome on a different night, but it was ultimately a loss and an 0-1 start to the year.
-Bellmont dominated Luers in their own gym last season, winning one of the sets by a score of 25-1, while also getting Delaney Lawson her 1000th career kill.
-Saturday’s opponents of Yorktown and Avon represent a major challenge to Bellmont this early in the season. (Listen to both matches live on WZBD)
The only competitive set of the night in the varsity match was the first one and the Braves won it 25-12, out-hitting the Knights and drawing the student section, dressed in white, into the match.
The rest of the night belonged to the Braves.
Long runs of points in the second set demoralized Luers, no matter how many timeouts they used and the third set was simply no contest. The Braves took the second 25-7 and the third 25-8.
Head coach Craig Krull did his best to rotate players and get some varsity time for the end of his bench and his best JV players, but the night was really about getting Tuesday out of the Braves’ system.
By the time the Braves had a 15-point lead in the third set, the students were demanding with their chant to head coach Craig Krull that Gracie Riggs make her varsity debut. The sophomore came into the game, served an ace, picked up her first varsity kill and dug out a couple of nice balls as the smile returned to the faces of the Braves.
Alyssa Gumbel had an impressive night behind the line, serving a ridiculous eight aces. She also added five kills.
Kamryn Jarvis was 4 of 6 on kill attempts and Ella Ross and Kaylee Kolter each had four kills, as well.
Liz Bobay led the way in assists (17) while Lilly Selking had 13.
Bellmont will play Yorktown at 10 a.m. Saturday, followed by Avon.
“It’s going to be a challenge like Tuesday,” admitted head coach Craig Krull ahead of Thursday’s match with Luers. “When we are going to compete at the level of Yorktown and Avon, it will be because MaryKate (Scheumann) and Alyssa (Gumbel) are at the top of their games AND someone else steps up. That’s what we will need.”
Scheumann and Gumbel certainly looked at the top of their games Thursday night.
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