Aug. 24—LAPEL — If there was such a thing as a foreign exchange student lottery, the Daleville volleyball team could be holding the winning ticket.
Brazil native Julia Andreassa put away 18 kills, and the Broncos overcame a first-set collapse to post a 3-1 (23-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-17) win at previously unbeaten Lapel on Monday evening.
With the win, the Broncos improved to 3-1 while the Bulldogs dropped to 2-1.
In a match that featured multiple standout performances from both teams, it was Andreassa who stood out above all. Her play not only filled the stat sheet, but her plays came at important moments.
In the second set, she recorded five kills and an ace in helping the Broncos establish a 14-6 advantage, and she ended a 6-0 run with her ninth kill of the match and recorded No. 11 on set point to close it out.
In a close third set, another Andreassa kill stopped a five-point Lapel run that pulled the Bulldogs to within 20-19. And an emphatic putaway of a free ball by Andreassa gave the Broncos an insurmountable 19-10 advantage in the fourth set.
While she has had to overcome a language barrier and acclimate herself to a different style of play than she is used to, she has been a welcome addition for second-year Daleville coach Valorie Wells.
“Their whole thing down there is to swing hard,” Wells said. “When she first came here, she said, ‘I just want to swing hard.’ That’s good for us.”
“They tip more here. It’s very different for me,” said Andreassa, who also had two aces. “I’m getting there. I’m getting it.”
Now two weeks and three matches into her Daleville career, Andreassa has begun to get more comfortable with the way the high school game is played, and the chemistry with her teammates is beginning to gel.
“With my team and my coaches because we are practicing and they are teaching me how to be smart in court and off court,” Andreassa said. “I think I’m better now as a player. I think playing games helped a lot because I know them in court and how they do things in court, so it’s helped with how I’m playing right now. I’m getting more comfortable with the team.”
“At first, she was questioning things. She was trying to get into the flow of stuff,” Wells said. “But, at practice, we tell her that this is what we’re going to run, retry, retry. In Brazil, she’s taught to swing, swing, swing, but when we’re off the net, we’ve got to relax, hit high, try to hit a corner and play smart. We’re trying to build her (volleyball) IQ a little bit, and tonight her IQ was great.”
Although the Broncos started the match hot, the first set slipped away after Lapel finished on a 12-5 run. After trailing the opener by as many as five in the early going, a pair of Ashlynn Allman kills pulled the Bulldogs even at 19-19.
But the Broncos did not panic after dropping the opener and continued with the game plan, which was to be aggressive.
“The message was that when we stop making silly errors and we keep putting the gas on them and swing away instead of tipping, it’s hard to beat us,” Wells said. “Our swings and being smart keep us in the game. If they’re digging the ball out, I don’t care. We need to keep swinging because they aren’t always going to be there.”
The Broncos also got seven kills each from juniors Abby Reed and Amarah McPhaul while senior Audrey Voss recorded six kills and led the Broncos with five aces and junior Emilee Finley posted 41 assists. The victory snapped a three-game losing streak to Lapel for the Broncos and comes on the heels of a sweep of Delaware County rival Cowan.
“It’s big. It’s huge,” Wells said. “We want to enjoy this win, but we want to come back tomorrow and be competitive tomorrow.”
For the Bulldogs, Allman led the way with 12 kills and two blocks, and Emma Anderson added seven kills and led all players with six aces. Emma Jackley had 30 assists for Lapel.
The teams will be in action again Tuesday evening as Lapel welcomes Cowan to town while Daleville travels to Hagerstown.
Contact Rob Hunt at rob.hunt@heraldbulletin.com or 765-640-4886.