The Lady Bruins volleyball team is headed back to the region championship for the fifth straight season as the team swept #4 Johnson University (FL) on Friday night in the semifinal round of the NCCAA DII South Regional Tournament. Victoria Glaze led the Bruins with 15 kills while Faith Rahn finished with 12 in the win.
"Johnson is a good team and they are well coached, but we played well against them tonight," Bruins Head Coach Vickie Denny said. "It was a great team effort tonight as different players came in at different times and contributed."
The Bruins came into the match after earning the #1 seed for the regional tournament, finishing the regular season at 9-6. The Suns came into the tournament as the #4 seed and had swept #5 Trinity Baptist College in straight sets earlier in the day. Toccoa Falls College had punched their ticket to the region championship with a win over Pensacola in the semifinal, and the Bruins and Suns would see who would join them as both teams took the court.
In the opening set, the Suns came out with three straight points thanks to errors by the Bruins. Brooke Beaver stopped the bleeding with a kill before serving back to back aces as the Bruins climbed back on top. Victoria Glaze added a pair of kills as the Bruins went on a run to take an 11-5 lead.
The Suns tried to claw their way back into the set, but Emma Riddle made back to back kills for the Bruins to spark a 7-0 run as the Bruins took a commanding 19-10 lead in the set. The Suns scored just one more point in the set before Brooke Beaver served it out with three aces in a run to close the set 25-11.
In the second set, the Bruins found themselves again in an early hole as the Suns stormed out to a 5-0 lead. Once again, Beaver's serve was key as she served four straight points and kills by Faith Rahn and Victoria Glaze helped the Bruins battle back and take the lead 9-7.
Rahn continued to pick apart the Suns' defense with pinpoint kills as the Bruins pushed their lead 14-8. The Suns tried to battle back, but again the Bruins kept up the momentum as they stormed out to win the second set 25-15 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Bruins looked determined to finish off the Suns in set three as Brooke Beaver had a pair of kills and two aces to help the team jump out to a 9-0 lead. Back on their heels, the Suns called a timeout hoping to stop the Bruins momentum. Out of the timeout, a kill by Glaze and a pair of aces by Rahn helped the Bruins increase their lead 17-4.
From there, the Bruins never looked back as Faith Rahn recorded an ace to complete the sweep for the Bruins as the team defeated the Suns 25-10 in set three to win the match 3-0.
"The key for us was to keep our energy up and not focusing on our last mistakes," Sophomore Victoria Glaze said. "We came together as a team and really helped each other out tonight."
Glaze and Rahn combined for 27 of the Bruins 41 kills on the night while Brooke Beaver finished the night with 6 kills and an incredible 9 aces in the match. The night was historic for Beaver as her efforts passed her over 1,000 career kills with the Bruins.
Next up, the Bruins will compete for the NCCAA DII South Region Championship on Saturday afternoon at the Davis Field House. The team will face #3 Toccoa Falls College for the fourth time this season. Tip-off is set for 12 p.m.
