Davie hits 2,000 career assists in Perkins sweep

PERKINS TWP. — Braelyn Davie has played a lot of good volleyball. The junior surpassed 2,000 career assists Thursday with a lot of action still to come. Her serving was key early for Perkins as the second-seeded Pirates rolled to a 25-10, 25-13, 25-15 first-round Division IV tournament win over Galion. Perkins improved to 18-4 and will face fourth-seeded Vermilion (11-12) at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Old Fort High School in a district semifinal. "I've been here two years and I know the setters I've had at the college level," Perkins coach Brandon Duvall said. "Braelyn has everything it takes to be the best setter in Perkins history, for sure, and into college. She has that 'it' factor and she's pretty cool. She usually doesn't stress out a lot. "She's usually pretty relaxed. I'm the one stressing and she's the one telling me to calm down." Davie had two of her match-high eight aces as the Pirates jumped out to an 8-0 lead. She got to setting later as Perkins strung together eight straight points. Her assists to Addi Mason and Reese Schaefer gave her 2,000 career assists. "It feel great," Davie said. "I couldn't have done it without my passers that I've had and my hitters. It's a team effort." The Pirates were hardly bothered in the first set by the ninth-seeded Tigers (3-20). Davie knocked down a kill and then added another ace as Perkins went up 1-0. "A lot of times it is us against us," Duvall said. "It's not us against anyone else. That's no disrespect to any other team, but every team we play does something nice that we have to figure out. Usually, the issues start with us and taking our foot off the pedal. It's us not staying as sharp as we were in the first set." The Pirates battled some errors in each of the final two sets. They led just 11-10 in Set 2 before ripping off 10 straight points. Viera Walker slammed a pair of kills before two aces from Davie made it 21-10. Kills from Mason and Schaefer gave Perkins a 2-0 edge. In the third set, the Pirates were ahead just 9-6 when they used a 7-1 run to build their lead. Schaefer put down the last of her 10 kills and Avisi Gehlot served up an ace to end it. Perkins topped Galion 25-13, 25-14, 25-12 on Sept. 26. Duvall said the he went back and watched the match even though it was over three weeks ago. "I'll watch this match again tonight," Duvall said. "I want to get to know the other team and their tendencies. I want to share that with the girls. This could be one of the best film teams that I've had. Film is boring. You watch it and you get it, but this team asks really good questions." Davie finished with 28 assists, giving her 2,017 for her career. Walker added nine kills, eight digs and three aces while Mason (nine digs) and Bria Hector each lined five kills. Gehlot nabbed 13 digs and Olivia Badamy contributed three aces. Perkins also has a win over Vermilion, defeating the Sailors 25-17, 25-15, 25-22 on Sept. 8. "We're 18-4 so we're obviously on a nice roll," Duvall said. "I think we're always going to get everybody's best effort. We have to take the wind out of their sails. They're not going to allow us to come in and push them around. We're going to be at a neutral site and I think everybody is continuously getting better." Vermilion had to grind out a 25-18, 25-16, 25-14 win over Lexington in the night's second match. "We need to figure out what is best for us and what we need to do in order to succeed as a team," Sailors coach Sawyer Schafer said. "My girls are pretty aggressive servers and they like to get after it. Sometimes we need to focus on easing ourselves into a set at the serving line. We did a better job of going back there and taking our time." The Sailors had to rally in each of the final two sets. In Set 2, Vermilion trailed 13-11. After trading points and taking a 16-15 lead on a kill from Ella Stout, the Sailors won eight points in a row to go up 24-15. After a block by Lexington (8-15), a serving error into the net gave Vermilion a 2-0 lead. The Lady Lex came out strong in Set 3, going up 5-0 and 6-1. The Sailors surged ahead 8-6 after two aces from Stout and pushed it to 11-7 on a Stout kill. Vermilion continued to win points in bunches, going up 17-10 after an ace from Cara Caffarel. The Sailors added a 5-0 run to seize a 23-12 advantage. From there, Emma Gebhardt served up an ace and Caroline Riddle put down a kill to finish the Vermilion victory. "I think we made a lot of errors at the beginning and even throughout the match," Schafer said. "But, we did a nice job of playing clean volleyball later for the most part and being defensively sound when could. We have been working on our offense a lot and I saw a lot of those things we've been working on." The Sailors were hot out of the gate, leading 4-0, 11-3 and 17-5 in Set 1. Lexington fought back, getting as close as six points before Vermilion took the opening set. "We've been having some of the best practices we've had and are peaking at the right moment," Schafer said. "Being back on the service line, we put pressure on but let them come back. I was proud of them for pushing through." Riddle finished with eight kills and five digs while Caraffel tallied 24 assists, six aces and six digs for Vermilion. Gebhardt contributed six aces and six kills while Payton Strickler lined six kills, Haley Stepp nabbed nine digs and Kensie Roberts stuffed four blocks for the Sailors. "Our biggest focus is taking care of our side of the net and doing what we need to do to be successful," Schafer said. "If we can take care of those things, then I will be pleased."