By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – The excellent ending was worth the interminable wait.
After enduring a two-hour delay from a power outage, Bedford North Lawrence flicked the switch for a surprising sweep of three opponents to claim the championship trophy in its own season-opening Invitational tournament on Saturday.
The event was close to cancellation as officials waited for the electricity to be restored. When the lights finally came back on, the brightest was BNL, a program that has struggled in the darkness of late. The Stars capped a perfect start to the 2024 campaign with a title win over perennial Class A power Springs Valley to earn the hardware.
After topping Clay City and clipping Corydon during the first two matches of pool play in the six-team event, BNL rolled past the Blackhawks in two sets. Considering the Stars had won only 13 matches the last three years combined, the impact of going 3-0 – with a new head coach and completely revamped staff – cannot be overstated.
BNL debuted with a 25-19, 25-22 win over Clay City (with the lengthy outage happening in the middle of the second set), then battled past Corydon 25-18, 29-27. In the finale, the Stars trailed for only the first four points of the second set while winging past the Blackhawks 25-18, 25-14 for their most impressive win of the day.
“I don’t know how much jewelry we’ve got in a while,” new coach Aaron Wagoner said. “So it’s exciting, we’re very proud.
“The energy is the constant thing we push. It’s hard for them to maintain it because they’ve just not seen it. I believe it’s part of building a winning culture, and if you don’t have any wins, it’s hard to catch the buzz. So this is pretty huge. We need a lot of noise.”
Something is different. Perhaps it’s the fact half the athletes who saw the most action are newcomers and don’t carry that past baggage. But for those who went through the lows, this was a much-needed high.
“We needed this a lot, to boost our confidence considering our record the last couple of years,” junior hitter Sammie Gratzer said. “I don’t think we believed in ourselves. It feels pretty good, considering it’s Springs Valley that we beat. It feels good to win.“
Sara Williams, another veteran junior on a team with only one senior, was the first to hug the trophy. And she held it a while.
“It’s a great start to our new change in BNL volleyball,” Williams said. “I’m excited. We haven’t had this kind of a start in a while. All we can do from here is play hard.“
How did they do it? From humble beginnings. The Stars trailed 17-14 in the first set of the opening clash with the Eels. Wagoner took a timeout, mostly to change the momentum in a sport that relies on that intangible more than most. BNL emerged from that break with a 10-1 scoring run, highlighted by Jenna Allen’s spike off a block and Jayden Allen’s six straight service points, to take the set.
BNL bolted to a 7-1 lead in the second set, then started scuffling again as Clay City pulled even at 12-12. That’s when the lights went out.
“We weren’t really playing well, so it might have helped,” Wagoner said. “We had a whole page of notes for things to work on after that first set. The passing was really messy, just all over the place, and we couldn’t get anything set up. Those were rough. We had to clean it up.”
After regrouping, after battling past the Panthers in the second match, BNL faced the Blackhawks in the championship. Valley got there with a 25-19, 25-16 win over Owen Valley and a 25-11, 25-13 conquest of Boonville in the other half of pool play. Just by reputation and recent history, the Blackhawks had the intimidation edge. But it also brought out the best in BNL.
In the first set, Gratzer was a force up front with four early kills, Williams cracked down a service ace, and freshmen Isabella Root ripped a kill as the Stars surged in front 10-4. They extended that margin to 20-10 with impressive points from Root (a tip that found the floor), Trinidy Bailey (a block up at the net) and Gratzer (another sizzling spike).
Valley started the second set with points from Maddie Carnes (an ace) and Kinsey Saliba (two kills). But BNL came back with a 10-2 burst, punctuated by three more Gratzer kills, then pulled away as Gratzer hammered down four more points.
“All-around, that last match was a good showing from everyone,” Wagoner said. “What is separating and allowing things to open up is the middles, they are more of a weapon.”
“It was communication, talking about where the other team is,” Gratzer said. “I think that freaked the other teams out, because we knew everything that was coming.”
Suddenly, BNL’s expectation level has changed, although Wagoner was quick to temper that with a jolt of realism. It was Day One of a long season.
“There’s no shortage of things to work on,” he said. “It’s very promising. It was a long day, but a really good ending.”
BNL will return to action on Tuesday when it hosts Mitchell in the annual county rivalry clash.
