Monroe Central Sweeps Past Homestanding Bridgeport
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BRIDGEPORT - Though their home crowd represented their school well Tuesday evening at Bridgeport High, the Bridgeport Bulldogs were unable to measure up to the visiting Monroe Central Seminoles, the 'Noles sweeping their opponent 25-6, 25-3, 25-9
Perhaps spurred on by a cheering student section, Bridgeport came out with energy, and played Monroe Central competitively, though they never led.
The Bulldogs scored their sixth point of the first game to trail 11-6, but after that, it was all Seminoles. Bridgeport called timeout down 18-6, but even that attempt at recalibration couldn't slow Monroe, who scored 14 straight to take the first game 25-6.
From early on, Monroe Central's fundamentals kept them on the attack, their pass-set-hit sequences on-point while Bridgeport made too many errors on their end.
Monroe Central moved to 2-0 on the season with Tuesday's victory, and the Seminoles feel good about the versatile skillsets of their team.
"This group is a good group, there's not really one of them that can't do a little bit of everything, which is a nice thing to have as a coach," Monroe Central head coach Jeanette Schwall said.
"You can count on people to set the ball, you can count on people to pass the ball, and normally if you're lucky you get just a few people who can do all that. I have a team that is very versatile, that's exciting for me."
The Seminoles hit their stride in the second game, executing well on offense and mixing up their sets, sometimes to the outside, sometimes to the middle.
The Bulldogs, meanwhile, fell victim to mishits and miscommunications which had the game snowballing out of control. Monroe Central quickly took the second game 25-3.
Monroe Central's Jacey English was a leader for the 'Noles' efforts Tuesday, and wounded Bridgeport with scathing serves that immediately put the Bulldogs off-balance, also tallying multiple aces in the match.
"I think we have to get better on our serve receive, because [English] really killed us on her serves," Bridgeport head coach Tara Carpenter said. "We just need to be more consistent playing together as a team."
The Bulldogs made one more push to start the third game, trailing Monroe Central by a single point as late as a 9-8 score, but much like the first game, the Seminoles found a new gear to blow by their opponent, and outscored Bridgeport 16-1 the rest of the way to complete the sweep.
"I thought that my girls played with aggression," Schwall said. "When we play Bridgeport, we want to come in with the mindset that we're going to do our best to dominate as much as we can. Traditionally we've beaten Bridgeport in our matches with them, and we expect to come in here and play well. I thought we did play well this evening, putting up the scores they did, especially in the second set.
"Real proud of them and real happy with what we've been working on. I can see a lot of improvement in them since the summertime and I'm hoping we can have a good season."
For Bridgeport, Erica Marling totaled two kills and two blocks, Josalyn Canter led the team with nine digs, Campbell Kropka had eight, and Markiee McCormick tallied eight digs, two assists, two blocks and one kill.
Monroe Central's JV team also beat Bridgeport's JV team, 25-8, 25-8.
"I like to see the girls having fun and enjoying themselves out there," Schwall said. "But most of all, I'm competitive, I like to win, and I want to see them be competitive and always giving 100%."
UP NEXT
The Monroe Central Seminoles next face the River Pilots on Thursday, Aug. 31, at home.
Play is set to begin at 7 p.m.
The Bridgeport Bulldogs are due to play the Bellaire Big Reds on Wednesday, Aug. 30, on the road after playing their last three games on their home gym.
That game is scheduled for a 6:45 p.m. start.