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B. Berndt’s 21 kills, King’s 12 kills, Pugh’s 34 assists key comeback vs. Marquette Catholic
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
The Culver volleyball team defeated Marquette Catholic 24-26, 19-25, 25-16, 26-24, 15-13 to win the Class 1A regional title at Culver’s John R. Nelson Gymnasium Saturday. The regional title is the first in school history. Culver (28-5) will play South Newton at noon Saturday in a Class 1A Frankfort semistate semifinal. The winner will play the Faith Christian-Seton Catholic winner at 7 p.m. for the semistate title.
CULVER — Trust in who you are and that you know what you are doing.
You should want the ball to come to you.
These are some of the Culver volleyball team’s credos under coach Andrea Berndt, and she reminded them of that during the last timeout of their Class 1A regional against
And then when they were on the brink of losing, they followed their beliefs to come back and make school history.
Their opponent had match point, but their trust in themselves and each other will not allow their season to end.
Thanks to 21 kills, 11 digs and 10 serves received from Brynn Berndt and 12 kills from Tyra King, the Lady Cavaliers rallied from two sets down to beat Marquette Catholic 24-26, 19-25, 25-16, 26-24, 15-13 in a two hour-and-10 minute Class 1A regional at John R. Nelson Gymnasium Saturday.
Culver led 14-10 in the fifth set, but Marquette Catholic won three straight points, and coach Berndt called her final timeout. On the next play, Marquette Catholic’s Delaney Kruis brushed into the net and was called for a violation to end the match.
Culver players and coaches rushed the floor in elation while Marquette Catholic coach Colleen Lane slammed her clipboard to the floor in anger. Officials served her with a red card.
After receiving the regional trophy, Culver players ran with the trophy to the student section to celebrate together.
The Culver volleyball team celebrates its regional title with the student section following its five-set over Marquette Catholic in a Class 1A regional at John R. Nelson Gymnasium Saturday.
“It feels so good,” King exclaimed.
Said Ashley Pugh: “It’s amazing. Unbelievable.”
Culver improved to 28-5 and won its first regional title in school history. They will play South Newton, who beat Fremont in four sets at LaPorte, in a semistate semifinal at Frankfort at noon this Saturday.
“Honestly, compared to sectionals, it feels even better,” Brynn Berndt said. “For the first time ever, we won regionals for the school. It’s just an honor.”
For the second straight match, they won despite their opponent having a match point. Triton had a match point at 14-13 in the fifth set in their sectional final match before Culver won that 18-16.
Pugh led in both assists (34) and digs (21). Livi Overmyer had 16 digs and 22 serves received. Ashlynn Berndt had 19 digs and 16 serves received. Gracie Milam also had 12 serves received.
Brynn Berndt and unheralded sophomore Sophie Grossman-Norris had three aces each. Grossman-Norris, who was one of five Culver servers who reached double figures in points, had 14. Overmyer had a team-high 15 points and four blocks, and Brynn Berndt had three blocks.
“This feels amazing, especially playing with my sister,” Ashlynn Berndt said. “We’ve always had a good bond and especially taking it on the court, it just feels amazing. We’re the first team to win it in school history, so it’s so great.”
Marquette Catholic scored three straight points – on a Livia Balling lefty tip, a Brynn Berndt kill error and a Balling deep tip in the corner – to get a match point at 24-23.
But Leighton Kurtich pasted a serve right into the net.
The match point was averted, and Ashlynn Berndt took over behind the line.
“I was scared, as anyone would be,” Overmyer said. “But I had my teammates, and I had to trust myself, and I had to trust my ability. So pass the ball, hit the ball, all of the above.”
King sensed an opening.
“I was thinking that if they were able to get up that easy, we were able to take it just as easy,” King said.
Said coach Berndt: “They’re human, and they can make mistakes too is what was going through my mind.”
An Ashlynn Berndt lunging dig preserved the next point for Brynn Berndt, who pounded a kill so hard off Marquette Catholic’s Olivia Hazzard’s block at the net that the ball floated at a 90-degree angle out of bounds. Now Culver had a set point at 25-24.
Livia Balling could only float a kill that Livi Overmyer dug and sent to Pugh, who set up Brynn Berndt for a quick termination.
“Brynn has a composure about herself that I don’t have,” coach Berndt said. “She has a little bit of her dad in that, which I am thankful. Ashlynn and I have the same composure, where we get mad and you can see that. And I’m thankful that Brynn doesn’t have that. But I am also thankful that Ashlynn does have that. … It was nice to see her keep her composure.”
Time for a fifth set.
“I mean, I am amazed by her, but I’m kind of used to it,” a smiling Ashlynn Berndt said of Brynn afterwards. “But she’s still a really good player.”
Culver had leads of 2-0, 3-2, 6-3, 8-6 and 9-8, but Marquette Catholic came back to tie every time.
At 9-9, Brynn Berndt’s kill from the back row went off the fingertips of the block. Grossman-Norris served a clean ace on the baseline. Another Brynn Berndt kill from the outside and a hitting error from Marquette Catholic’s Mackenzie Snyder made it 13-9, and Lane called her last timeout.
Brynn Berndt was called for a net violation, but Marquette Catholic was called for a net violation as Brynn Berndt swung away for another kill.
But then Livia Balling stuffed Brynn Berndt, and Kurtich put down an ace. A Livia Balling kill off a stuff block averted a third match point.
Coach Berndt called timeout.
“I am going to go back and give Marquette quite a bit of credit too,” coach Berndt said. “Because as we’re scouting them and they’re a team, they have multiple guns in the front row. They have multiple girls they can go to in the front row. So defensively, we knew we had to dig out of the left, the middle and the right, whereas other teams, they are dominantly middle hitter-heavy or left hitter-heavy, so I give it to Marquette for moving us around as much as they did.”
Culver had leads of 11-7 and 17-13 in Game 1, and they still led 21-18 after a Brynn Berndt kill, an Overmyer service winner and a Brynn tip that forced Marquette Catholic to call timeout.
Culver would get to set point at 24-23 on a Brynn Berndt ace before an Elaina Balling kill, a Snyder kill and an Overmyer kill error that sailed long gave Marquette Catholic the set.
Culver led 14-10 in Game 2 after a King kill and an Ashlynn Berndt service winner, but Marquette Catholic scored six straight points after Lane called timeout, and they would finish off the game on a Livia Balling tip and Livia Balling attack.
Marquette Catholic had 10 aces as a team. Seven different players had at least one.
“Compared to Triton, Triton’s serves were nothing compared to these serves,” Overmyer said. “And that’s definitely something that we need to be practicing more – getting the serving machine out and looking into that more.”
Culver responded by jumping out to a 10-3 lead in Game 3. That run included two Brynn Berndt aces – one of which hugged the net before dropping over – and a tip from King. Back-to-back aces from Grossman-Norris made it 14-6.
“Sophie was huge,” coach Berndt said. “Sophie’s a girl we can get in and out. We can put her in the front row. We can put her in the back row. We can put her wherever she needs to go when she comes in.”
Marquette Catholic would get back within 20-16 before Culver finished with five straight points. The point that made it 23-16 took 36 seconds, featured three sprawling digs from Marquette Catholic before Snyder went long with an attack. After two more errors, it was on to a fourth set.
“It wasn’t more of an adjustment,” Brynn Berndt said about coming from behind after losing the first two sets. “It was just our mindset. Triton did the same thing to us, so who said we couldn’t do it to them?”
The crowd was getting more raucous.
“We’ve never played in front of crowds like this before, and the small Culver community has never had this kind of support, and it’s so amazing,” Overmyer said.
Meanwhile, the Culver passing was able to get a better handle on Marquette Catholic’s serves.
“There was a little bit of out-of-system, but Ashley Pugh, our setter, is very good at finding a way at getting it up in the air and back into system somehow,” King said.
The comeback was about their mental approach, according to Pugh.
“I think it was just a mindset,” Pugh said. “We told ourselves that we could do it. We knew we could do it. We just had to put our mind to it.”
Culver also started Game 4 on a 10-3 run thanks to an impenetrable block that included two stuffs from Brynn Berndt and stuffs from King and Overmyer.
“The first two sets, offensively, I don’t think we were in our offensive system much,” coach Berndt said. “I think we were on our heels. I think we were playing defense a little bit too much. And just not terminating the ball when we had an opportunity to terminate the ball. The third set and fourth set, I think we got in our offensive system a little bit more. We started connecting with hitters a little bit more. So I just think offensively we made a little bit of a change.”
But this time Marquette Catholic scored six straight points to get within 10-9. Culver would push back out to a 14-10 lead on kills from Overmyer and Brynn Berndt and a lift call on Snyder.
Culver still led 21-17 after a service error from Kori Ladd and a miss on a kill try from Elaina Balling.
Marquette Catholic crept back within 22-21 on a Livia Balling stuff, and coach Berndt called timeout.
Brynn Berndt responded with a kill, but three straight Lady Blazer points had them on the verge of their own storybook ending, an ending that Culver would rewrite.
“It was just more believing in myself and that we still have it no matter what,” Brynn Berndt said of her kills at the end of Game 4 after what might have been a costly miss. “You can’t change the score, so you might as well just change your attitude.”
Semistate information
Faith Christian will meet Seton Catholic at 10 a.m. in the first semifinal, and the South Newton-Culver match will follow. The winners will return at 7 p.m. for the title.
Semistate tickets are $12 per person. Children under 5 are admitted free. The IHSAA is also offering pay-per-view television coverage of the semistate at ihsaatv.org. Cost is $12 per match or $20 for all matches.
Of the teams at semistate, only Seton Catholic has played in a semistate before, having played in one in 2015. Culver, South Newton and Faith Christian are all first-time regional champions.
Culver’s only other regional title in a team sport came when the 2011 girls basketball team won a Class 2A regional. The old Culver High School won boys basketball regionals in 1944 and 1946, though those titles predated the opening of Culver Community High School in 1968.
Culver def. Marquette Catholic, 24-26, 19-25, 25-16, 26-24, 15-13
CULVER STATS
Brynn Berndt – 21 kills, 3 aces, 3 blocks, 11 digs, 1 assist, 10 serves received; Tyra King – 12 kills, 1 ace, 1 block, 1 dig; Meredith Gordon – 1 kill, 1 block, 5 digs; Livi Overmyer – 4 kills, 1 ace, 4 blocks, 16 digs, 22 serves received; Ashlynn Berndt – 1 ace, 19 digs, 2 assists, 16 serves received; Sophie Grossman-Norris – 3 aces, 2 digs, 7 serves received; Hayden Lute – 1 block, 3 digs, 1 serve received; Gracie Milam – 5 digs, 12 serves received; Ashley Pugh – 21 digs, 34 assists, 1 serve received
The Culver volleyball team boards a Culver-Union Township fire truck for a ride around town following its five-set win over Marquette Catholic in a Class 1A regional Saturday. The title is the first volleyball regional in school history and just the second regional title in any team sport in school history.
