Packing a punch
McKinley’s power game too much for Broadmoor
Broadmoor High School had no answer for McKinley’s power attack in their Division II volleyball playoff match at McKinley on Thursday night.
The Lady Panthers won 25-23, 25-20, 25-21 to advance to the second round on Monday against Lutcher.
Six-foot hitters Rondolyn Bryant (22 kills, 16 digs) and Tyroneshia Howard (21 kills, 17 digs) led McKinley. Setter Dajah Selvage had 32 assists in the match.
It was the third win of the year for the Panthers (20-11) over Broadmoor (15-23).
“They’ve got great hitters,” Broadmoor coach Maria Gonzalez said. “We knew we’d have to come in here, play good defense and not make any mistakes. We just made too many mistakes. We’d catch up, then make dumb mistakes.
“We couldn’t keep any momentum going.”
The Lady Buccaneers kept the first game close, coming from behind twice to tie the game at 15-15 and 22-22 before Howard’s kill gave McKinley a lead it would not relinquish.
The Panthers used a 7-0 run to take an 8-1 lead in the second set, with Bryant scoring five of the first eight points on kills.
Broadmoor came back to pare the lead to two at 21-19, but again Bryant put the finishing touch on the set with another kill for a 25-20 victory.
Bryant had eight kills in the second set, and Howard added another five.
“We come into every match thinking domination,” Howard said. “We want to sweep all the way — win in three and end the game quick.”
Broadmoor made another strong move and led throughout most of the third set. The Bucs went up by five at 19-14, with 14 of those points coming on McKinley’s service faults, hitting errors and violations.
With the Buccaneers leading 21-19, the Panthers righted the ship with Howard serving. They evened the score on a Bryant kill, ran off three more points and won the set and match on Howard’s service winner.
Bryant said she wasn’t worried when her team was down in the third set.
“I was just thinking we had to play one point at a time,” she said, “and not worry about the score. That’s just for the fans in the stands. We just needed to worry about the man in front of us.”
McKinley coach Brenda Simon said she didn’t think her team had its best game of the season.
“It’s nerve-wracking, because I know how we’re capable of playing, and we didn’t play our best game, but hey, give them a lot of credit. Maria does a great job of coaching them, and they showed up ready to play.
“In our minds, we might have thought we were going to beat them OK, but I knew she’d have them ready to play.
“We got a little complacent, but we showed enough resiliency to come back. And a win is a win is a win.”
McKinley is playing through the playoffs without their captain, Kayln Mills, who suffered a season-ending knee injury three weeks ago.
Seniors Anisha Spencer (11 kills and 9 digs) and Erica Teschke (4 kills, 6 assists and 8 digs) led the Bucs.
Essella Holland added six kills.