Boys volleyball: Medina rallies to tie, but Brunswick prevails in five

BRUNSWICK — The Medina boys volleyball team was hoping it would be a repeat of the Medina County rivals' first meeting last season. The Brunswick volleyball team was praying it wasn't. It wasn't. The Bees nearly rallied from a two-set deficit like they did last year at Medina, but this time the Blue Devils regrouped for a 25-12, 25-17, 20-25, 21-25, 15-12 Greater Cleveland Conference victory Thursday night. "Our coach (Brian Valore) said it was in the back of our minds before and now it was at the forefront," Brunswick senior setter Nathan Frick said of the message between the fourth and fifth sets. "He said, 'Get that out of your heads and show them we're the better team.'" The win improved Brunswick to 6-3, 2-0, while Medina, which had to share the GCC title last year when the Blue Devils won the teams' second meeting, fell to 2-3, 1-1 but left knowing it could compete after overcoming a horrible start. "At the beginning we were really slow," said Bees junior Oliver Singer, who had a team-high 12 kills. "After the second set we had a long talk about working as a team. Instead of one person working alone, it was six working together." Brunswick, which won the first two sets so easily it looked like the match would be over in three, trailed 12-11 in the fifth but scored the final four points on a Medina carry, a kill by Nicholas Trvdik, a block by do-it-all hitter Jarrod Delattre and another kill by Trvdik off a perfect set from Delattre. "We got a little bit complacent," said the left-handed Frick, who celebrated his 18th birthday with seven kills, a block and three aces while providing excellent setting in just his second month playing the position. "We thought it was going to end right there and didn't put our best foot forward." Fortunately for the Blue Devils, Delattre was swinging his mighty right arm all evening. The senior had match highs with 26 kills and six aces while adding two blocks. "Every single time I want every single set," he said. The Blue Devils, whose stiffest challenger in the seven-team GCC is once again expected to be Medina, also got seven kills apiece from Jonah Kilo and Trvdid and five from Maxim Shapovalov, but Delattre proved to be the difference in the match. "It's really nice to know I have someone I can get the ball to," Frick said. "No matter where the ball is, he can get a kill or put them out of system. He's a great safety net." The Bees, who led only 2-1 at the outset of the match over the first two sets, made a ton of errors in that span. That's when coach Chris Howells made the decision to move Trent Balicki from libero to hitter, and the decision paid off big time when the sophomore provided six key kills over the final three sets. "He's a consistent player, and he's been playing a long time," Singer said. "When we're in a pinch, it's always good to bring him up to the front." Medina got back in the match by winning a wild third set. The Bees scored six straight points to go up 6-3, but the Blue Devils came right back with six in a row. Medina then went on a 6-2 run and closed the set by winning four straight points, the last three on Brunswick errors. The Bees, who also got five kills, two aces and great setting from Dylan Coughlin and seven kills from Aiden Gontarz, then raced to a 14-3 lead in the fourth set, when Brunswick appeared to be on the verge of falling apart. "It resembled a lot of what happened last year on our home floor," Singer said. "We were putting a lot of pressure on them, but I think the serve and serve receive (in the fifth set) really hurt us." The Bees had leads of 3-1, 9-7, 11-9 and 12-11 in the final set, but the Blue Devils pulled it together and made sure Frick's birthday was a happy one. "They're a scrappy team," Delattre said. "The rivalry always brings the best out of both of us, but it was (Frick's) day. We had to win it for him. It gave us extra motivation." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.