By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – What a difference a year makes.
At this point on the schedule last season, Bedford North Lawrence was a surprising 7-0, although that hot streak was about to turn cold with six straight setbacks. The Stars kept adjusting the thermostat the rest of the way, finishing 12-12.
Now they’re off to a 4-0 start following a tidy three-set sweep of Bloomfield (0-3) on Tuesday night. Have the Stars found their comfort zone? They’re about to find out, with the tests ahead.
BNL remained undefeated with a 25-16, 25-21, 25-14 victory over the Cardinals, overpowering Bloomfield with serving force. There were moments of temperature control within each set. And that’s the major difference from last season to present day. Rather than be overjoyed by the success, which was understandable after all the struggles of previous seasons, they are setting the room temp by a different standard – quality of play. Expectations of excellence are higher.
“We’re not even close,” BNL senior Sara Williams said. “We have a lot of room to improve, we have a lot to work on. It feels good to be undefeated, that we’re beating teams we should be. It gets us in a good mindset.”
BNL started slow, down 6-1 in the opening set before turning up the heat. The Stars responded with a 12-2 run to take control of the first set. They kept that momentum until the latter stages of the second, when they got a little shaky before closing it out. Then the start of the third set was their best, a 17-4 eruption before coasting to the finish.
“I would be disappointed if we were not 4-0 at this point,” BNL coach Aaron Wagoner said. “That’s nothing against the teams we’ve played. Some of them have been close (like the five-set battle with Edgewood on Monday), and this was closer than it looks.
“But I don’t think we’ve played to our full potential a lot. As long as we play up to our competition, maybe it will pan out. But that’s a bad practice. We’re trying to stress it doesn’t matter about the competition, we play our game.”
The statistics reflected the hot-cold nature of this win. Kills at the net were down (Sammie Gratzer blasted 12 and Isabella Root totaled five), but service aces were way up. BNL totaled 15, led by Root’s four. Gratzer, Jenna Allen and Lily Mishler added three each.
”Last night we had a lot of service errors,” Wagoner said. “We’ve been preaching the gospel of keeping it in play. If it’s late in the game and you decide to do something crazy and hit it in the net, what good does that do? We’re trying to teach knowing what the score is and using your serve accordingly. We need it in play.”
BNL was also solid on the back line. Williams totaled 17 digs while Trinidy Bailey added 11.
”The last few games, the digs have been fantastic,” Wagoner said. “They’ve been eating it up.”
”We know serving and passing is the most important part,” Williams sad. “If we can do that, we’ll be good to go.”
BNL will face its first Hoosier Hills Conference opponent when it visits Jennings County on Thursday.
