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Bradford junior Amanda Brewer is able to get the ball past the
outstretched arms of Tri-Village sophomore
Autaum Moore (10) and junior
Kaylor Pearson (8) at the net Thursday. Tri-Village won its first
conference
match of the season, 3-1 over the Lady Roaders. CNO Photos
by George Starks
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Lady Patriots
outlasts Bradford in CCC clash
By George Starks
BRADFORD- Coming in with a 4-12 mark, the Bradford Lady Railroaders
wanted to improve that mark by one game for first year head coach
Maddie Armstrong.
On the other side of the court stood Tri-Village and its first year
coach Eric Burkhart.
With both teams having subpar seasons, Burkhart was looking for his
first win in the Cross County Conference.
Give the nod to the Patriots.
After splitting the first two sets by identical scores of 25-23, T-V
took the next two sets by scores of 25-13 and 25-17.
“The kids played very well tonight,” said Burkhart. “I was very happy
with them and they played as a team. We had a bit of a rough part in
the second set with ball control but after a timeout, we picked it up
and finished it off (in the third a fourth sets).”
After winning the opening set, the Patriots jumped out to a commanding
12-4 lead and was looking to make quick work of Bradford and go up 2-0.
At that point, the lights came on and Bradford caught fire.
The Roaders went on a 7-1 run to close to a 13-11 count before Burkhart
call time.
Bradford refused to be denied, finally gaining the lead 23-22 before
scoring the 25-23 win.
“Bradford is a scrappy team,” admitted Burkhart. “There were three or
four balls they were able to dig up that I was very impressed with. On
balls that should have been kills, the got them up.”
Since the start of the season, the Pats have found the going very rough
and Burkhart recently decided to shake things up.
That shake up started with his setter, Allie Downing.
Putting Allie as my setter has allowed us to have more ball control
which allows us to have better hits,” admitted Burkhart, “I’ve made
several changes and it’s working out for us.”
While Downing is the glue of the team as the setter, the first year
player seemed to be getting things done all over the court.
The T-V junior had her share of kills, blocks and points scored as well
as service aces.
“She’s just a real competitor, mentally and physically” Burkhart said.
“She’s just around the ball at all times and that’s why I switched her
to set for me. She does have that reaction to be able to get to the
ball and that’s just been a good asset for us.”
While Burkhart was happy with the win, things were not so happy on the
other side.
In most situations, Bradford was staring at huge deficits before
stoking the fire and getting competitive with the Patriots.
Armstrong is trying to straighten out the roller coaster that is the
Roaders.
“We have been working on a lot of things and trying to build their
confidence is one of them,” said Armstrong. “It’s very disappointing to
watch them get down in the score only to fight back and fall short. We
are trying to straighten this out.”
Bradford will host Newton on Tuesday while the Patriots will travel to
Arcanum that same night.
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Bradford senior Kenzie Weldy goes low to keep a ball off the floor.
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