O’Gorman showed why it is one of the elite teams in Class AA Monday night Golden Eagles Arena.
Third-rated O’Gorman set the tone early on the way to sweeping the Golden Eagles 25-16, 25-14, 25-19 in a non-conference volleyball match.
Central had prepped for the Knights knowing that they have a very strong offensive attack.
“We came in and practiced on Sunday and kind of talked about some of their tendencies and reading hitters,” said Central coach Jackie Bindenagel. “When their offense is that fast, it’s really difficult to find where that hitter is going. They do disguise it really well, and they’ve got a very good setter.”
The Central players knew that they would have to step up their defense against a potent offense.
“We worked a lot on trying to get our block out there. Just a lot of reps,” said Central sophomore Camryn Albrecht. “And obviously they’re really good, so they’re gonna work around it.”
In the first set, the O’Gorman serves caught the Golden Eagles off balance and prevented them from getting into a rhythm.
“In the first set, it was just a matter of our serve-pass game,” Bindenagel said. “We didn’t serve particularly well, and we had some communication errors in serve receive.”
The Knights were also able to sustain long scoring runs, while holding Central to just a couple of points at a time.
“They have a really good side-out percentage, which I mean, that’s huge when you don’t let other teams go on two, three-point runs,” Bindenagel said. “It’s gonna make a big difference too.”
And it did as the momentum carried into the second set. O’Gorman’s offense found its groove as Central’s defense had a tough time keeping up with the tempo that the Knights were employing.
“Just got to try and key in on that hitter and get some hands up,” Bindenagel said. “And not necessarily that we need a block every time, just slowing it down.”
The backline focused on reading the blockers in front of them in hopes of returning the attacks against a team with a wide variety of point-scoring skills.
“We’re trying to find the split in the block, making sure we’re in the right spot. Reading their hips and their elbows,” Albrecht said. “Seeing if their hand’s gonna tip or not. They hide it pretty well.”
Albrecht took advantage of scoring opportunities in the second set as she landed two kills, one from the back row, and one dump from the net.
“It was fun. Normally the kills don’t happen, and I just saw the ball to swing on my right shoulder and it just happened to go in the right spot, I guess. I don’t practice those too much, but it worked out,” Albrecht said. “And the dump, I just see it out of my peripheral vision. Just seeing the open court.”
Down two sets, the Golden Eagles came out firing, holding a competitive start to the third set.
“I mean, just really at that point, you have nothing to lose and our best chance at running our offense is to get them out of system, get an easy ball coming back,” said Bindenagel. “I was pretty pleased with how our kids served in the third set there.”
Serving was a point of emphasis for Central, which collected all four of its aces in that third set. Albrecht led the way with two of them.
“(Coach Bindenagel) said that we wanna serve more seams, trying to serve aggressively. Just trying to get them more out of system than an ace, but then aces worked out more than getting them out of system, I think,” Albrecht said. “I think it got the team a little hyped up a little bit for a couple more points afterwards.”
Not only did Central improve its serving, the Golden Eagles overall play improved as the match wore one, but O’Gorman was still able to close out the sweep.
“I thought it was good. And our communication actually got better as that third set went on, too,” Bindenagel said. “So, they just stuck with it and I’m happy with our kids for that. And it’s just a good lesson, and the level that we need to play at.”
The road doesn’t get any easier as the Golden Eagles go on the road to play second-rated Brandon Valley on Thursday.
Serving: Aberdeen Central 43-48 4 aces (Camryn Albrecht 8-8 2 aces, Alivia Miller 9-11 1 ace, Lauryn Burckhard 9-9 1 ace).
Hitting: Aberdeen Central 87-95 24 kills (Burckhard 24-27 9 kills, Kamdyn Borge 24-24 6 kills, Kenadi Withers 14-15 4 kills).
Setting: Aberdeen Central 76-76 23 assists (Albrecht 40-40 12 assists, Miller 25-25 6 assists).
Digs: Aberdeen Central 43 (Taylin Kleffman 9, Withers 8, Burckhard 6).
Blocks: Aberdeen Central 4 assists (Jaidyn Forsyth 2, Mya Arampatzis 1, Amelia Rife 1).
