Brookside claims share of PAC title in thriller

In the biggest game of the season, Brookside and Firelands had a thrilling battle. A pair of kills and defense in set 4 brought Brookside to a lead Firelands couldn’t catch up to.

After two months of competitive play, the Patriot Athletic Conference Stars Division came down to a single night with three teams and two matchups.

With Buckeye (13-9, 10-6 PAC) hosting a struggling Black River team, all eyes were on a showdown between Firelands (12-10, 9-7) and host Brookside (12-10, 10-6) to determine who would likely earn a share of the title.

Playing in the biggest game of the season thus far, both squads didn’t disappoint as they battled out a four-set thriller, culminating in a 3-1 victory (25-20, 25-18, 22-25, 25-22) for the Cardinals as they delivered coach Jenn Larrick her second conference title and the school’s fifth.

“This was a battle in and out,” Larrick said of the conference race. “I told them that if every night we win out then we don’t have to worry about us. Everybody is worried about what could happen, who loses what, but we just worry about us and if we just handle business, than at least we’re cochamps.”

The Cardinals were playing at less than 100 percent as junior Lauren Sheehan took the court while nursing a lower quad injury that left her struggling to lift. The opportunity called for the freshman tandem of Jenna Rothman and Leah Musall to step up. And did they ever. Musall set her teammates up for success throughout the evening, tallying 36 assists. She fed Rothman fourteen times, allowing her to thrive in front of the net with blistering kills to keep Brookside neck-andneck with the Falcons.

“It feels great,” Musall said. “It’s nice to feel important and to impact the team.”

Playing the middle, Rothman was excited to take the challenge of filling in as the go-to hitter for her team, alongside the injured Sheehan.

“Yeah, I feel like when I’m hitting in the middle I can control myself more because I have been hitting there longer,” Rothman said.

Rothman finished with 16 kills while Sheehan added nine kills.

The Falcons hung tough all evening, battling backand-forth with the Cardinals. The gutsy loss didn’t go unnoticed by Firelands coach Jordan Kolarik.

“I have said all season that my girls are the best,” Kolarik said. “They are phenomenal. They have worked hard all season and I think this is the best record Firelands has posted since 2013. We are so close to a championship. Second is not a good feeling, but overall we have so much to be proud of. They worked hard and they fought back.”

Firelands received stellar nights from junior setter Joselyn Moquete and a scintillating jump-serve performance from senior Emily Squires. Moquete racked up 28 assists while Squires bullied the Cardinals with seven kills and six aces.

After multiple lead changes and a thrilling first two sets, Brookside gutted out a 2-0 set lead.

Larrick knew the match was far from over.

“We know how aggressive they can be,” She said. “They have played with multiple teams in our conference and they battle in five set matches every time I look at their scores. We knew they weren’t going to give up easily, so we just had to keep on rolling.

Sure enough, the Falcons came out firing in energetic and emotional third set. Brookside clawed back on top at 20-19, but a few powerful hits from Samantha Walcott and some staunch defense gave Firelands the advantage as they eventually took the set, 25-22.

Brookside regrouped, and continued to battle in the beginning of set four. That’s when a pair of kills from Sheehan and some defense of their own helped the Cardinals stretch out to a 15-11 lead.

Sheehan was just happy to play in the biggest game of the season alongside her teammates.

“Yeah, I was thinking if I felt good enough and I could walk then I was going to play because it was the end of the season and it was for the PAC champs and I just wanted to help my team,” Sheehan said.

Sheehan lauded the senior-like performance from Rothman.

“I’m so proud of her,” Sheehan said. “She is only a freshman, so she is only going up from here. When she is an upperclassmen she is going to be even better.”

Firelands cut the lead to 23-21 on a pair of spectacular serves from Squires, but it was too little, too late.

With her girls celebrating around her, and after finally being able to relax, Larrick, revealed she was as nervous as could be for the high-stakes matchup.

“We had no gamplan for them,” she said. “Because when we played them the first time, I thought our team played really poorly. So going in the second time around, I really didn’t know what they would do. Going in here the second time our focus was much better than it was before.”

After helping capture the schools fourth conference title in seven years, Larrick feels right at home.

“These girls work extremely hard. I don’t have a complaint about any one of them,” Larrick said. “They come in every day and for every game and they are focused. They are ready to make any adjustments that they need to make…I love being here, I really do. I’m here for a reason.”