Elaina Penrod
Columbus North has faced some stiff volleyball competition in recent weeks, so when the Bull Dogs were matched against a .500 Bedford North Lawrence team Tuesday night, there were ripe for a letdown.
The Bull Dogs showed no signs of that. They controlled each set in rolling to a 25-13, 25-15, 25-12 victory.
“We weren’t expecting that much competition tonight, but the way that we came as a team, we played our game instead of letting some silly errors affect the end result,” senior hitter Sydney Ousley said.
“I thought we did really well, actually,” senior hitter Elaina Penrod added. “I think that it’s hard sometimes when the skill level is nothing to play up toward, and sometimes you fall down to their level. But I think that we did a good job of staying up. We had some missed serves, but I think we came back with our offense.”
Karen Dutro recorded 12 kills and one ace, Lexi Denny had 24 assists and one ace and Morgan Osborn added 15 digs and one ace to lead North (16-10). Penrod had two solo and one assist block, and Hannah Perry served one ace.
Also for the Bull Dogs, Tania Maldonado tallied nine kills and one solo block, and Penrod pounded seven kills. Clara Balzano contributed four assists, Dutro had two solo blocks Kaitlyn Olivo added one solo block, Perry posted 10 digs and Rori Pollert added five digs.
“I was really proud of my team,” North coach Sarah Stair said. “They came in, and they took care of business. We had a few too many service errors, but other than that, we kept our errors to a minimum.”
Stair was able to play her entire varsity roster in at least one, if not two, sets against the Stars (11-12).
“I like to try to to that whenever I can,” Stair said. “I know that everyone works hard, and everyone wants to play.”
North now turns its attention to a Thursday matchup at Columbus East.
“We are focused and ready,” Stair said.
“We are definitely excited for it,” Ousley added. “This game gave us a lot of hope moving forward, seeing what we are going to be able to do against our crosstown rivals.”
