Early season matches often provide a good measuring stick for teams. That is especially true for squads like the Berthoud High School (BHS) volleyball team which has a new head coach and some new players in key positions.

After their opening two matches of the 2022 season, the BHS volleyball team sits at an even .500 after a pair of tilts against district rivals – picking up a 3-0 win (25-16, 25-23, 28-26) over Mountain View last Thursday before suffering a 3-0 defeat (25-19, 25-19, 25-16) to Loveland on Tuesday night.

Photo by ACP Media – Berthoud’s Charlee Russick goes up for the kill in a match at BHS last fall. Russick has had a great start to the season, leading the team in kills and aces as Berthoud sits at 1-1 through their first two matches.

In the win over Mountain View, Berthoud demonstrated some resiliency by overcoming large deficits in two of the three sets to win with the clean sweep. Junior outside Charlee Russick turned in a stellar performance in the match, recording 10 kills and five serving aces, both of which led the team, while freshman middle hitter Audrey Gravestock got her high school volleyball career off to a strong start with four blocks.

Loveland provided a stiffer test Tuesday night on their home floor and Berthoud was never able to generate the kind of momentum needed to string together scoring runs. Always appearing to be about a step or two ahead, Loveland was regularly in a position to block the Lady Spartans’ attack while simultaneously keeping their guests out of the system and on their heels defensively.

“I think the reason they were successful with their block is they were moving twice as fast as us on everything, so, defensively, they were there to block in the right position because they’ve set themselves up to be in the right position,” Coach Sweet explained after the match. “I feel like they were three steps ahead of us all match and you can only do so much if you’re out of the system. “They know what they’re supposed to do, they’re just not executing it, I hope they bounce back from this and work harder. They just need to be more disciplined across the board.”

While Berthoud was able to hang close to Loveland, kills from Russick and senior Zoe Campbell continually kept the Lady Spartans within arm’s reach throughout the first set, but Loveland proved regularly able to maintain a three-to-five-point lead throughout. It seemed that every time Berthoud was able to string together a couple of points, Loveland would answer three or four, sapping the Lady Spartans’ nascent momentum.

At times, Berthoud also proved to be their own worst enemy, making unforced errors even after capitalizing on a Loveland error or getting a couple kills of their own. In the second set, senior setter Holly Jaros delivered a kill off a ball that had ricocheted off the rafters on the ceiling of the gym to make the score 7-4 Loveland. Yet the hosts remained disciplined and rattled off three straight points to suddenly make the score 10-4.

“We just didn’t find the ways to score points tonight, we weren’t dynamic enough to find little spots and holes and be smart enough to put the ball into those spots,” Sweet said. “Those are discipline issues … we’re shooting ourselves in the foot when it comes to those things, everyone knows volleyball is a momentum game and if you can’t ever get any feeling of momentum and when you do get even a little bit, you make a mistake that is easily avoidable.”

With Campbell on the serve late in the second set, Berthoud rallied, playing their best ball of the night and tied the score at 17-all. A subsequent error by the Lady Spartans gave the lead right back to Loveland, who scored seven of the final nine points to take the set 25-19.

The Lady Spartans did build an early three-zip lead to open the third set but Loveland, after a timeout, gathered themselves and rallied, scoring eight straight points to take a lead they would not relinquish.

“We were beating ourselves; we would just watch a ball fall in between or we would swing into the net when we didn’t need to,” Jaros explained. “I personally value one on one communication with our hitters, Audrey Gravestock, our freshman middle, she values it too, she will talk to me about what she would like, and that’s big for us, we really need to be more talkative like that on the court, that will help.”

Berthoud will play their home opener this Thursday night when they welcome Frederick to the Rusty Mathena Gymnasium at BHS.