Going into the season, most everyone expected Broadneck to be team to beat in Anne Arundel County volleyball. The Bruins returned most of their starters from a team that made a lot of noise last year.
Top-ranked Broadneck took another step toward backing up the hype at home Thursday night. The Bruins used a taller front line and found all the openings while defeating South River, 25-15, 25-16, 25-10 in a key league game.
The scrappy Seahawks played Broadneck (4-0, 3-0) tough early, leading for a good potion of the first set. Gradually, though, you could see the Bruins starting to dismantle the South River defense.
“The first thing I did after the match was to compliment our setters,” Bruins coach Tracey Regalbuto said. “They were on point and putting up perfect sets for our hitters to get a hold of. Our hitters executed tonight, and we’re a tough team to beat when everybody is hitting on all cylinders.”
South River (2-1, 2-1), which already has a win over Arundel on its résumé this season, was finding some early points, but then the Broadneck front line of Sydney Lawrence (6 kills, 15 assists), Kennedy Smith (7 Kills, 5 blocks) and Anna Graves (8 kills, 13 digs) started to get involved. The Bruins dominated the net for the entire night, and the Seahawks just had no answer.
“We were really excited for this game,” Smith said. “We never underestimated them or over estimated them. We just made sure to go out and play our game. We’re going to keep fighting to just get better and better.”
South River, to its credit, got back within four, 17-13, in the first set, but that was as close as the Seahawks could get. The Bruins went on a five-point serving run by Amanda Protzman, which included two aces, to run the score to 22-13 and effectively put the set away.
Broadneck came out with much more energy in the second set. Behind another Protzman serving run and a second by Julia Rubino, Broadneck built a 7-1 lead and never looked back. Gradually the holes that South River had been finding disappeared, and Broadneck started to find some in a South River defense that played well and moved well without the ball. The Seahawks cut the deficit to 18-14 on a Rebecca Austin kill, but Broadneck scored seven of the next nine points to take the second set, 25-16.
“We knew they had a really good defense and they don’t let any balls hit the ground,” Graves said. “We made sure to not let the way they play affect us. We made sure we were dictating the style of play most of the night.”
The third set was all Broadneck. The Bruins scored the last eight points before closing out the match, 25-10.
South River coach Maureen Carter was complimentary of her team’s effort. She also was cognizant of how good Broadneck is.
“We lost, but we made Broadneck fight for every point they got,” Carter said. “Broadneck is very good. They had harder hitters than we do, but we never gave up.”
For Regalbuto, she’s optimistic about this team, but cautiously optimistic.
“We had a great player last year go down with a significant injury, and it kind of put a halt to things on our state run,” she said. “This team is different. I’ve never had a team that could get points from so many different players. We’ll see how we do.”