Vail Christian girls volleyball sweeps Lake County in mountain town rivalry

Vail Christian swept Lake County 25-11, 25-7, 25-9 on Friday night, patching up the serving errors which plagued them in their season-opening win a week prior.

“That was obviously the focus,” head coach Britney Branson said. The coach told her team they didn’t need to bomb balls against their mountain town rivals, but instead just get it over and “make it move.”

“And they did,” she continued. “In the past, I feel like we’ve struggled with scrappy teams and teams that send over on the second contact or (have) lots of tipping. So it was just a huge focus to one, play defense and be scrappy but also move and not expect the ball to come to us.”

Sam Bates set the tone in all those departments.

“She especially did an awesome job of being disciplined, not panicking and playing our game,” Branson said of the junior libero, who has assumed the defensive specialist role occupied by recently departed four-year starter Jessie Allen.

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“It’s been great. It’s kind of hard to step in for her but I’m trying my best for our team because we need the back row,” said Bates, who had a 2.33 serve-receive percentage and five digs.

“She was there, she was ready for anything,” teammate Tenley Brasington added. “All of our defensive specialists came in and got to work; they’re the reason our offense ran well.” 

The Saints, all of whom spent last week at a school retreat and only practiced once prior to the game, jumped out to a 6-0 lead. Michelle Teague put away two kills and registered one of her two aces before Lake County called for time, trailing 7-1.

“She’s improved like crazy,” Brasington said of Teague, who finished the game with seven kills. The junior served in a reserve role last year but improved dramatically over the off-season.

“She had to fight for playing time and she definitely came back this year determined to get that playing time,” Brasington said.

The Saints slipped up for a few plays as unforced errors allowed the Panthers to claw back to a 9-6 deficit. Mary McClarrinon placed one of her game-high nine kills — a cross-court missile into an empty back right corner to instigate 10-0 run. Vail Christian never looked back from that point on.

“I think a little bit of everyone stepped in. We were like, let’s not play down to their level, let’s keep going,” Bates said of the minor first-set hiccup. “Our energy was great.”

Bates said Brasington earned her player of the game award.

“She hit every ball I gave her,” she said. “I could trust her.”

Brasington finished with five kills, three aces and 12 assists.

“She did a lot tonight,” Branson said. “She was a great server, I felt like her setting decisions were awesome and she was probably one of our most effective hitters tonight. And both her and Betty (Bartok) were playing some defense, which was exciting.”

Brasington, a 6-2 setter on the right side, said she’s loved sharing the court — and offensive strategy — with Bartok.

“She’s our senior leader — she’s fierce and keeps things in control,” Brasington said.

Bartok said she often doesn’t feel like the only elder stateswoman on the team and has been impressed with her team’s maturity through the first couple weeks. The evidence: they lowered their service errors from 17 in their first game to four on Friday.

“We wanted to focus on our serves and our first touch. I think we did so well in that,” Bartok said. “We were really disciplined and very together and I’m proud of that.”

Vail Christian (2-0) opens league play at home against Caprock Academy next Thursday at 6 p.m.

“It’s a different energy,” Branson said. “I think they’ll be excited to get that going.”

“I love this group of girls,” Bartok said. “There’s so much commitment. We all gel so well — it’s going to be a great season.”