District volleyball: Elyria makes Brunswick sweat, but Blue Devils prevail

JACKSON TWP. — A late start and pesky opponent couldn't derail the Brunswick volleyball team Tuesday night, as the Blue Devils opened their postseason run with a 25-11, 25-22, 25-14 win over Elyria in a Division I, Northeast 2 District semifinal. Third-seeded Brunswick (16-7) overcame a strong effort by the No. 13 Pioneers (5-18) to advance to the final at 7 p.m. Thursday against No. 4 Massillon Jackson, which defeated John Hay 25-14, 25-13, 25-6, at Normandy. The Blue Devils led just 10-7 nearly midway through the first set before ripping off a 15-4 run to win on an emphatic kill by senior Autumn King. The ending was one of the set's longest rallies. "It felt good getting that last kill," said King, who led the Blue Devils with 10 kills. "The end of the sets always feel the best, especially when you're the one getting the kill. So it felt good to do that for my team." Then the Blue Devils survived the second set, one in which Elyria led 12-4. Brunswick rattled off nine of the next 10 points to tie and took four of the last five points to win. "We fall flat sometimes, and we are a team that plays on our energy, so we can't be successful if we don't have the energy," Brunswick coach Mande Luttner said. "We just didn't give the energy that we needed to, and Elyria said, 'We're going to take advantage of this,' and they found all the holes that we were unwilling to get to. So it was a little bit of a wake-up call." The lack of energy wasn't just noticed by the coach, either. "I definitely think we changed our energy a little bit," King said. "We did win that first set, and I feel like we kind of got nonchalant about it." The third set was all Brunswick for the most part after Elyria took the first two points. The Blue Devils bounced back with 12 of the next 13 and led by at least four the rest of the way. Senior Erin Morgan finished the match with aces for four of the last five points. The key to the final set was another change in energy. "I don't know that happens sometimes, but we switched the energy when we realized, 'Hey, we can't be doing this at district,"' King said. "We need to lock in, especially if we're using this game for practice for our upcoming game. (The difference was) the energy change, for sure. We changed our energy a lot after that second set." Brunswick, which finished second in the Greater Cleveland Conference and has won nine of its last 10 matches in three sets. Even if this one didn't come easily, that is just fine with Luttner as long as her team is still playing. "(Elyria) came hard," Luttner said. "They served really good. They had a very aggressive blocking and some hitters finding some good holes. It's good to have a good match like that as you prepare to go to a district final. It's good to have someone come and put up a fight against you. It's good for the girls." The two matches started late on Tuesday night due to transportation issues for John Hay, resulting in each match starting 30 minutes later than scheduled. Brunswick stayed loose after making the nearly hour-long bus trip. "We got here really early on purpose," Luttner said. "I like to treat it just like any other game. We fed them dinner on the bus and then they get here, and they have time to relax. They're not really fazed by that because we're here so early, they're used to it." Contact Ryan Isley at sports@medina-gazette.com.