Brookside capitalizes on Clearview’s youth

After losing a tough, lateseason nonconference game to Lorain the night before, Brookside bounced back to beat Clearview, 3-1, in a Patriot Athletic Conference divisional crossover game at home on Sept. 29.

The Clippers, though, weren’t going down without a fight, and after some mental mistakes cost them the first set, Clearview answered right back with a 2516 win in Set 2.

It seemed like everything was coming up Brookside after that, and the 11-5 (92) Cardinals capitalized on the inexperience of a young Clearview team to take the win on their home court.

“After playing two matches this week, I know they were frustrated about losing to Lorain last night,” Brookside coach Jenn Larrick said. “But Clearview’s a good team. They’re physical, they had a few mistakes and fortunately tonight we made less mistakes in the end than they did.”

Larrick tried to keep her team up after the tough loss to Lorain, and though it took a couple of sets to settle in, is pleased with how her team responded to stay in the hunt for the Stars Division.

“Our goal is to win our side of the conference. Even though (Clearview’s) not on our side, we want to stay right behind Lutheran West and Columbia, so, that’s a perfect place to be in,” Larrick said. “Lorain, last night, hurt. We really thought we were playing well, but Lorain’s a good team. That’s not a bad loss for us. For them to bounce back and get a win tonight is a good thing.”

Clearview coach Brian Ward has struggled with personnel issues all season and said this was just the third game he has had a full roster.

“I attribute a lot of that to how our record looks right now,” Ward said of missing players. “You don’t finish games when you don’t have those go-to players in the game. It’s hard to finish games when you have a young team and I think that’s our biggest struggle right now is some of the mental toughness errors.”

The Clippers are 6-10 (47) and improving every day, and Ward is looking forward to the final stretch of the season. In its final five games, Clearview will face five conference opponents for the second time this season.

“Our block is strong,” Ward said. “Some of the biggest things that we do are blocking and hitting. We can count on the attack. If we get a free ball, we’re going to score .. .and the more we learn about someone, the easier it is to shut them down. We’ve shut down some big opponents on other teams.

“It’s just a process. But now that we have a full team, I’m optimistic about the next few games ... we just have to finish the year strong. That’s the most important thing.”

Brookside hosts Firelands on Oct. 4, while Clearview hosts Fairview.