.png)
B. Berndt: 18 kills; Overmyer: 9 kills, 5 blocks, 4 aces
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Brynn Berndt Ashley Pugh Merideth Gordon Livi Overmyer Tyra King
FRANKFORT — The Culver volleyball team’s Class 1A semistate semifinal match against South Newton at Frankfort High School’s Everett Case Arena started out as a battle of nerves, became literally a face-to-face showdown between the teams’ stars and finished as a battle of wills.
The stronger will belonged to South Newton and star Taylor Cripe, who put down 32 kills as the Lady Rebels rallied to win 22-25, 22-25, 25-16, 25-21, 15-7.
The loss ended Culver’s 15-match winning streak and ended the greatest season in program history at 28-6.
Brynn Berndt had 18 kills, and Livi Overmyer had nine kills to go with five blocks for Culver. Tyra King and Meredith Gordon had four kills each. Overmyer and Sophie Grossman-Norris had four aces each. Ashley Pugh had 26 assists and 12 digs, and Ashlynn Berndt had 12 digs.
Afterwards, in the bowels of the stadium, as they walked out of the locker room, a waiting throng was there to give them an ovation after a crazy state tournament run – a five-set win over Triton in the sectional final in which they fought off a match point, a five-set win over Marquette Catholic in the regional in which they rallied from two sets down and fought off a match point and this match, in which they could not hold on to a two-set lead against South Newton, whose star player Cripe is a Central Michigan recruit.
“Volleyball’s a game of momentum, and they obviously had it on their side,” Culver coach Andrea Berndt said. “I think we got a little nervous and maybe a little playing to not lose – that old saying. So I think we just got nervous. I think we weren’t extremely confident in ourselves. When you have girls like Taylor and Jada Cripe hitting at you, we talked about being proud of getting touches on things, and I think we just, for lack of a better word, maybe got scared. And I think we maybe just started to crawl in a hole a little bit and not get ourselves out of it.”
The players acknowledged the community support afterwards.
“To get this far, obviously, we made history, but it was more than that,” Overmyer said. “It was us coming together as a community and having everyone drive here just to support us, win or lose, I know there’s anything they would do to support us.”
Culver’s best chance to win might have occurred in Game 4 after Avalin Bohlinger poked a serve long and King struck a service winner to give the Lady Cavs a 17-15 lead.
But a Cripe kill, a kill from 6-0 middle hitter Madison Bohlinger and a service winner from Briley Iseminger gave South Newton an 18-17 lead.
Coach Berndt called her first timeout.
Hayden Lute’s kill try for Culver hit the antenna, but Cripe hit long, and Culver had it back to 19-18. But a Madison Bohlinger kill and a Jada Cripe ace made it 21-18.
Coach Berndt used her second timeout.
A Madison Bohlinger slide made it 22-18, but a Brynn Berndt kill off the block, an Overmyer service winner and a Brynn Berndt block cut it to 22-21.
Taylor Cripe responded with a tip, a kill off the block and a power tip that was set up by a sprawling dig from freshman sister Jada to end the game.
Culver never led in Game 5. A four-point South Newton run gave them a 5-1 lead. Culver would hang within 6-4 on a Brynn Berndt kill and a Cripe attack into the net, but South Newton went on another four-point run, and Culver was down 10-4 and out of timeouts.
A Madison Bohlinger kill off the block ended it.
South Newton coach Laura Robbins cited reserve Liv Kollman settling the team for a struggling Avalin Bohlinger as a turning point.
“I think we were nervous coming in,” Robbins said. “I think we were playing not to lose versus playing to win. And sometimes that mentality, just that little shift in mentality, can really change the tempo.”
The match was between two first-time regional champions.
Despite four service errors, South Newton still led 22-20 in Game 1 before an Overmyer kill gave Culver a sideout. The unheralded Grossman-Norris – she did not play at all two weeks earlier in the sectional final – immediately dropped in a service winner.
Robbins called her last timeout.
It did not stop the Lady Cav momentum.
Brynn Berndt put away a South Newton overpass, and then Grossman-Norris delivered a clean ace. Another Brynn Berndt kill off an out-of-system assist from sister Ashlynn closed out the set.
Game 2 started out as a showdown between gladiators Brynn Berndt and Taylor Cripe.
Cripe stuffed Berndt at the net for a 3-2 lead.
Three points later, Berndt stuffed back a Cripe rocket.
Were you not entertained?
An Overmyer stuff would later cap a four-point run and give Culver a 10-5 lead. A Taylor Cripe kill error and a Brynn Berndt ace off the net maintained the lead at 17-13.
South Newton would take a 20-19 lead on a flying lefty tip from Jada Cripe, but Meredith Gordon swung from the right and went crosscourt to tie it, and a Madison Bohlinger kill error long and a Grossman-Norris ace made it 22-20.
After a South Newton timeout, Brynn Berndt missed long, but Jada Cripe missed on a serve, and Overmyer, No. 1 in Culver’s service lineup, added a service winner.
Overmyer netted a serve on set point, but when Lindsay Lowe went long with her serve, Culver had a two-set lead.
“As a team, our offense was on,” Brynn Berndt said of the first two sets. “We were swinging at them, just swinging as hard as we can.”
It would be the last set Culver would win for the season.
Culver started Game in a 10-4 hole but then won five straight points on a Lute kill, a Jada Cripe kill error in which she tried to surprise Culver by going over on one, a Brynn Berndt kill going off-speed, an Overmyer stuff on Taylor Cripe and a Brynn kill.
But Robbins would call timeout, and South Newton scored the next eight points to take an 18-9 lead.
“And then just the ability to battle back was hard for us today,” coach Berndt said. “You know, it was South Newton’s day. It wasn’t our day. If we play them tomorrow, maybe it could have been our day. But it wasn’t our day. We gave it our best shot, took them to five sets, and we wish them luck tonight.”
An Overmyer service winner highlighted a three-point run to start Game 4, and a Grossman-Norris ace would cap another three-point run as Culver led 10-8.
“Sophie was huge,” coach Berndt said. “Man, I don’t think that girl understands the difference she makes, and I know that she’s hard on herself right now. All the girls are hard on themselves wondering what they could have done better. But for Sophie to step in when she hasn’t all season long and to make those big serves and those defensive changes, again, just huge.”
A tense exchange of sideouts followed.
“I think it was more their offense really turned on in those fourth and fifth sets,” Brynn Berndt said. “And we can’t stop it when you have Taylor and Jada swinging as hard as they can pounding it at us. So their offense definitely turned on for them.”
Robbins praised Culver, acknowledging both teams’ historic accomplishments.
“Nothing but mad respect for her,” Robbins said of coach Berndt. “We hugged before the game and talked before the game, and obviously, Brynn has played with Taylor, so they played on club together. Good family friends, you know. So there was that kind of nerve between the two of them… but they understood what the job was, I guess, today. Brynn is a tremendous player, and to have a team loaded like that with seniors to get here and to have that moment is even more important with all those seniors.”
Coach Berndt described the season-long journey. Losses to Triton and North Miami cost them a chance at the Hoosier North title, but they won the Triton tournament on Sept. 14. A loss at Pioneer followed, but they went another six-and-a-half weeks between losses.
“We started the season, I would say, in a midseason slump at the beginning of the season,” coach Berndt said. “So that was worrisome, and then we got out of it, I would say probably around Triton. We moved some things around offensively in our rotation that I think helped us a lot. And then we got out of that. We didn’t have a midseason slump because we had it at the beginning of the season. So they just kept building momentum to get here.”
In the first semifinal, Faith Christian knocked out Seton Catholic 25-18, 25-15, 25-14.
Faith Christian then went on to beat South Newton 25-21, 26-24, 22-25, 25-23 in the semistate final Saturday night.
It capped an extraordinary weekend for Faith Christian, who also won the Class 1A girls soccer state title Friday.
South Newton def. Culver, 22-25, 22-25, 25-16, 25-21, 15-7
Culver stats
Ashley Pugh – 26 assists, 12 digs; Ashlynn Berndt – 1 assist, 12 digs; Brynn Berndt – 18 kills, 1 ace, 3 assists, 3 digs, 2 blocks; Gracie Milam – 1 dig; Hayden Lute – 1 kill, 2 digs; Livi Overmyer – 9 kills; 4 aces, 6 digs, 5 blocks; Meredith Gordon – 4 kills, 1 ace, 3 digs, 1 block; Sophie Grossman-Norris – 4 aces, 3 digs; Tyra King – 4 kills, 1 ace, 2 digs
Comments