Danbury improves to 6-0 with sweep of PC

LAKESIDE — Everything for Danbury starts with its defense. Battling for every last ball with an opportunity to keep things alive, senior libero Lauren Bergman is the center of all things defensively for the Lakers. Bergman picked up 15 digs Wednesday, helping Danbury to a 25-20, 25-20, 25-19 non-league win over Port Clinton. "Our goal today was to be disciplined," Bergman said. "We had to stay focused and bring our energy. We wanted to play at our level. Defensively, we had to make sure we were moving our feet and staying on our toes." Lakers coach Keith Diebler gave high praise to Bergman, another great setter in recent memory for Danbury. "A couple years ago we had a fantastic libero in Macy Brown, who was second-team all-Ohio," Diebler said. "Lauren is right there. She comes prepared to every practice and every match. She calls our defenses on the floor. She kind of reminds me of a Jacob Diebler at point guard. We're so connected and it's a joy to work with her." Danbury (6-0) got big leads in each set, only to fend off the Redskins (2-4) numerous times. In Set 1, the Lakers won points in bunches to slow build its lead. Consecutive kills from Avrey Bowling gave Danbury a 17-12 advantage. The margin reached 23-16 when Cali Wunder and Jordan Ritz combined on a block. Port Clinton kept fighting, getting within four points. But, a hitting error on the Redskins gave the Lakers the early lead. Danbury also jumped out to a big lead in the second set. "We tend to get ourselves in a hole and then we play even," PC coach Kent Felbinger said. "We had a timeout in the second set down 7-1 and we beat them from that point on. We get into the holes, but we don't know why that is. I think a lot of it is we're keeping our passes a little too deep on the court. It's something we'll try to get in the gym and fix." The Redskins did play well after the Lakers extended the lead in Set 2 to 8-1 on a Port Clinton net violation. Danbury got up 11-3 on a block from Avrey Bowling, but the Redskins fought. They were within 22-18 following an ace, but couldn't draw any closer. Instead, Quinn DiBucci put down a kill and a hitting error by PC gave Danbury set points. The Lakers smacked a pair of errors, but a kill from Ritz gave Danbury a stranglehold on the match. "We seem like we have one hitter that's hot one night and one that's hot another night," Felbinger said. "If we can get where we have multiple attackers opposite of each other, we'll be in a better situation. We can't have one where one's down and one is up. We need to have them both up." The third set played out similar to Set 1. The Lakers slowly built their lead, going up 16-13 on a Bowling kill. Port Clinton got within 16-15 on a Tatum Higgins ace, but Danbury answered with the next four points. The Lakers went up 24-17 after a kill from Grace McDonald, but the Redskins fended off a pair of match points. After a Danbury timeout, a serving error by PC gave the Lakers the sweep win. "The first set we played with a lot of consistency," Diebler said. "The second and third set, I thought we had lapses where we weren't serving where the ball was supposed to go. I was worried about Port Clinton because he does a great job of coaching. They're fundamentally sound. I'm proud of my kids. They fight for every ball." It was the second match for Port Clinton in 24 hours after a loss to Perkins (5-1) on Tuesday. The Redskins are off until Saturday when they host Margaretta. "I don't know if it was tough," said Felbinger of going back-to-back. "These kids are all young and they play club volleyball. They have a lot of energy. I don't think that was a thing. There's a few things we need to get fixed." Wunder ran the offense to the tune of 26 assists. Bowling tallied 12 kills and four blocks while Ritz added six kills. Danbury (2-0 Sandusky Bay Conference) will face a similar situation to what Port Clinton just went through when it hosts Ottawa Hills (4-1, 3-0) in a quick turnaround Thursday. "We have a big one here tomorrow night," Diebler said. "It's probably the biggest match of the year so far."