Rubber match against Martinsville bounces Bloomington North volleyball's way

It's been characteristic of this year's Bloomington North volleyball team to get strong contributions from its bench.

So when starting middle Leah Brown, North's tallest player at 6-foot-1, went down with a season-ending injury just a few days ago, it was Sydney Pitner's turn to uphold that trend. In her first postseason start on Thursday, she tied her career high with nine kills, to go with a solo block and three block-assists as the Cougars worked past Martinsville, 25-21, 25-17, 19-25, 25-17 at the Class 4A Bloomington South volleyball sectional.

"I was nervous, because I've played middle before, but I haven't done it in a while," Pitner said. "So it was a big step and Leah, she puts up a very strong block and she's very good all the way around.

"So going in I was nervous, but as soon as I stepped on the court and had my first swing (North's first kill), I'm like, 'Oh, it's going to be a fun night. The sets were perfect."

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North (20-12), which lost 3-1 to the Arties then beat them 2-1 in tourney play later in the season, advances to a semifinal meeting with Mooresville (12-16) on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. Center Grove (17-15). The 25-12, 25-16, 25-8 winner over Greenwood meets the host Panthers (8-16) at 1 p.m.

Pitner was one of five Cougars with nine kills or more and that work in the middle helped the outsides remain productive once they figured a way around Martinsville's stiff block, especially on the left side.

"They had a nice block tonight, but a lot of that comes from, 'Are we passing well? And can we move the ball around?" North coach Disney Bronnenberg said. "Once we started getting in a rhythm from the service receive line, then (setter) Ava (Moore) was able to move the ball around a little bit more."

And that kept Martinsville's defense guessing and second guessing.

"One thing they did really well offensively tonight was they picked apart our left-back defense," Martinsville coach Kelsey Patrick said. "They really scored some points on us there and it was something my girls could not figure out. how to get their feet stopped and stay in place where they need to be. A little bit of discipline at the end of the season."

Another big key for North was finishing. The Cougars won all three sets, the first came with a 7-0 finish, the second with a 6-2 finish and the last was wrapped up with a 7-2 surge. Mia Robbennolt served out the first set and fired an ace to end the second, part of a big night with nine kills, four block-assists, four aces and two digs.

"It was nice to see them not pull punches when we're getting close to putting pressure on them," Bronnenberg said. "That's part of our game plan."

Momentum hard to hold

Martinsville (7-23) and North each put together numerous runs of 4-7 points. The Artesians did a great job reeling North in after quick starts, but the third set was only one where they had a strong enough back half to win.

In Set 1, North led 6-1, then Martinsville went on a seven-point run. They led 21-18 and didn't score another point, unable to handle Mia Robbennolt's serves.

"It felt like a rollercoaster," Patrick said. "I told them when we are playing really well and executing things, we stay on top of that. And then we also have those moments where one mistake turns into four mistakes and that's really what cost us this whole game.

"We made more mistakes than Bloomington North made tonight for sure."

The Arties' body language said they were done after Set 2, but an early timeout by Patrick got them back on track after trailing 5-1. An ace by Emerie Carter tied it at 6. It was tied again at 12 when Martinsville took the lead for good.

A 7-1 run made it 17-13 only to see North get within one again. Then kills by Chloe Jones helped push the lead back to four. It was 21-19 when North gave two points away (it had 13 hitting/serving errors in the set), Carter had a kill and another North attack sailed long to keep Martinsville's season alive.

"I'm going to hope it was me," Patrick said. "Because I did roll them in (after Set 2) and I tried to be that little ball of energy. I said, 'Hey, if we can do one thing, let's take a set. I'm not asking you to win the next three automatically, but win one."

The clincher

That momentum seemed to be flipping the Arties way when Set 4 started. They led 8-4 when everything changed.

Bronnenberg called a timeout.

"It's not going to be big speeches in the huddle," Bronnenberg said. "It's going to be the players talking about what's happening out there and how can we make adjustments. Just minimizing those errors over time and then people step up and be leaders in the huddle and that allows them to lean on each other and say, 'Look me in the eye, let's do this."

The Cougars responded with an 8-2 run and the offense only seemed to get even sharper after that. North finished the set with just one attack error and missed three serves, to go with 17 kills.

Field position, extra points, field goal North, South kickers on the right foot

"Coach said they came into the set defeated," Pitner said. "But as they kept on building points they were getting more energized and we needed to do the same thing. The more energy we had, it seemed like, the more points we were scoring."

Barrow finished with 13 kills and Hodson 10 off the left side, Sullivan 10, to go with four block assists, Ava Moore had 46 assists, Ava Robbennolt 17 digs and Avery Freeman 16 digs and four aces.

Arties head home

Jones had 11 kills for Martinsville, with Makenna Hall adding seven and Carter five. Courtney Burnam and Emma Kerns each had a pair of aces, as the Arties were consistent early on in landing their serves right on the top of the basketball key between the 10-foot line and back line, forcing a lot of diving receptions.

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It was a tough season, but consider the schedule they faced.

"Everybody says that," Patrick said. "A big thing for our team is mental toughness. We lost a good senior group last year and we had five great seniors this year, and it's going to be hard for next year but we need to build that underdog confidence that Martinsville needs in their volleyball program because we have a heck of a schedule.

"Our record doesn't show what this team has done and been through this season. (Maci Dorsett), who played all around and became a second-hand setter, was not playing at the beginning of the season. Our libero (Molly Urban), whose committed (to Louisville), missed eight games, so we've had some very rollercoster moments this season."

Contact Jim Gordillo at jgordillo@heraldt.com or 812-331-4381 and follow on Twitter @JimGordillo.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Rubber match against Martinsville bounces Bloomington North's way