By By TOM NYHUIS / Niles Daily Star
EAU CLAIRE – Brandywine's varsity volleyball season came to an end Tuesday evening.
The Lady Bobcats were defeated by River Valley in the opening match of the Class C District Volleyball Tournament at Eau Claire High School.
The Lady Mustangs advanced in the tournament taking the opening match in three straight games over the Bobcats, 25-8, 25-20 and 25-17.
Brandywine played from behind nearly the entire evening.
In game one, trailing by one, the Lady Mustangs rolled off an 11-3 run to take an 18-8 lead and closed out the game scoring seven consecutive points.
The Lady 'Cats trailed River Valley 11-6 in the second game of the night when they were able to pick up some momentum scoring six consecutive points to take over the lead at 12-11. After a Lady Mustangs' time out and a 12-12 tie, Brandywine took their final lead of the game, 13-12. From that point it was River Valley turning the momentum its way to make a run jumping to a 23-16 lead.
Again the Lady Bobcats clawed their way back into the game to close the gap to three, 23-20, before River Valley closed out the game on a kill by Jodi Grandholm.
"It's really tough playing defense the whole time and not being able to have any sort of cushion for any plays that you want to set up," Brandywine coach Sara Eaton said after the loss. "So that kind of hurt us a little bit. It was frustrating and it is hard on the girls as well not to have that confidence when you have the lead."
In the third and final game, Brandywine jumped out early to a 4-1 lead. River Valley knotted the game at six and again at eight.
From that point the Lady Mustangs gradually pulled away opening up a 17-11 lead. Brandywine was unable to cut the gap to less then five the rest of the way.
Tuesday's district play was the final time for three Lady 'Cat seniors to hit the floor. Katie Smallwood, Kendra Zache and Julie Barnett closed out their high school career with the loss.
"We meshed well together throughout the season," Eaton said. "It was just a matter of key communication during the game sometimes."
Eaton, in her first year at the Brandywine helm and as a varsity coach, had little time to prepare for the season taking the job just as the season was kicking off.
"I am disappointed because I know they really wanted it and there is only three of them. I know that's not a lot but they had their whole hearts in it and we wanted to be able to play Friday and win and play again. Obviously everyone wants too. I'm sure they are happy with this season because we had a winning season as far as the conference goes, we took fifth place. It's not all bad."