‘WE’VE GROWN A LOT’
Young Bloomfield Hills keeps improving with sweep of North Farmington in D1 district opener
BLOOMFIELD HILLS >> After starting the season 17-6, it took the Bloomfield Hills BlackHawks recording a three-set sweep of North Farmington in Monday’s Division 1 district opener to get them back over the .500 mark again.
After enduring a back-loaded schedule filled with powerhouse programs, the 2515, 25-21, 25-20 win over the Raiders left the BlackHawks 20-19 on the campaign — but quite possibly a better team than they were during their lights-out start.
Or at least a deeper, more dynamic, diverse and dangerous one.
“We’ve grown a lot and we’ve taken some lumps as a young team should because they need to know what it takes to win. And I think they’re slowly learning how to do it,” Bloomfield Hills coach Jacob Paige said, acknowledging that the playoff battles like Monday’s will make his young team better in the long run, as well.
“Yeah, absolutely. They have to know that, you know, having pressure is privilege. And a lot of kids would love to be in their position. So taking advantage of the moment, and being comfortable, being uncomfortable and staying urgent and having a purpose to every time they touched the ball.”
The BlackHawks beat a similarly young group of Raiders (9-17) to advance to Wednesday’s district semifinal against Birmingham Seaholm at 7 p.m. Birmingham Groves will face two-time defending D1 champion Birmingham Marian in the earlier semifinal at 5 p.m.
Bloomfield Hills even got a bit of an inmatch lesson on Monday: After jumping out to a 7-0 lead in the second set, and expanding the lead to 14-3, the BlackHawks watched as the Raiders put on a 10-1 run late in the set to cut it all the way down to one, 22-21, before Bloomfield Hills was able to score the final three points to go up 2-0 in the match.
“We were up really big, and then we got a little comfortable. And so with a young team, they need to learn to sustain and have urgency. That’s the big thing for us. And that’s what we’re really trying to focus on is to stay hungry and to not get comfortable,” Paige said.
The BlackHawks were able to get offense from freshman standout middle hitter Kayla Nwabueze, but also got plenty of kills from Annalise Parker on the right side and Natalie Petrucci on the outside.
That’s where the BlackHawks have become more dangerous as the season has gone on.
“So our setter (Caroline Azzali Bello), this is really her first chance of getting to run an offense at the high school level. So at first we were comfortable always setting Kayla. As the season went on, she learned that she has the ability to set all the other hitters, and they’re great attackers. They have some experience playing club and at the varsity level. So she trusts her hitters now. And you know, as you can see, we’re a better offense for it. And we aren’t so one dimensional, very dynamic now,” Paige said. “Caroline’s really grown into herself this year as a setter. … Just Caroline trusting herself, trusting her feet, getting to the ball and setting the right attacker. We’re pretty tough team and we’re able to do that.”
North Farmington actually jumped ahead 7-2 in the first set, but a seven-point service run from Nwabueze put the Black
Hawks ahead 10-9, then a five-point run by Kora Nicolanti pushed it to 1510, before a seven-point run on the serve of Azzali Bello closed out the set.
After North Farmington’s rally in the second set, the Raiders started out the third set hot again, going up 6-3 early, before the BlackHawks ran off an eight-point run on the serve of Nicolanti to go ahead 11-7. Bloomfield Hills pushed the lead up to 18-10, before North Farmington started to whittle it away again, getting it down to 2219 before Bloomfield Hills closed it out with a 3-1 spurt.
North Farmington’s young squad will lose four seniors, but use the lessons learned this season, and Monday as part of its own growth.
“They know the mentality that they need to have going into next year. They know the feeling of how it is to lose, so that needs to go into (it).
Got a whole year to rebuild,” North Farmington coach Michael Love said. “They know the feeling of playing in the playoffs, win or go home. Only two of those players that actually played tonight knew (previously) what that feeling of what win to go home felt like. So, you know them all coming in, still the young mentality. Like I said, it’s a gift and a curse, but now that curse is over, and they know the feeling they need to have going into next year. So I think that helped us a lot.”