BROOKFIELD SURVIVES THRILLER WITH LEOPARDS

BROOKFIELD OH-  Thursday night volleyball action saw what may end up being the best game of the year despite it being just the first week of the season. The Liberty Leopards travelled North to take on the Brookfield Warriors in what has been a fast-developing rivalry over the course of the year.

The Ladies of Brookfield put on a fundamentally sound showcase of expert level basketball in the first two sets of the night getting out to hot starts and making next to no major mistakes. They took the first set of the night 25-14 thanks to a slew of Liberty misfires and then continued to push the intensity in set two eventually coming out with a 26-24-point victory. Liberty looked strong in the second set, but they found themselves down early in a lot of sets and that proved to be the final blow in this second set as they were never able to catch all the way back up. Going into the third set Brookfield was looking great. Lauren Shingledecker and Cailey Wellman had been feasting at the net all night long and they would continue to do so in set 3 as the Warriors pushed themselves out front yet again to an 11-point lead and making the score 24-13 before Head Coach Brie Harbison decided to pull most of the Varsity squad needing only one more point in the third set to win the night. This decision proved costly as the Leopards helped by an amazing performance from Lexi Muck (Player Profile) and company scored 11 straight points to tie the game at 24 and eventually steal the third set 27-25.

An outstanding comeback in set 3 set the table for the best set of the night in set 4 which yet again saw the Warriors get out to a 6-point lead let in the set. Somehow and someway the Leopards stormed back one more time to steal a set yet again from the Warriors 27-25. From down 2-0 the Liberty Ladies forced the game to a fifth set where they would ultimately run out of steam as a well-conditioned Warriors unit that had gotten off to a hot start in every set just had more juice left in the tank as they would handedly take the final set 15-9 winning the night.

This game most definitely concluded as a game of the year candidate as Brookfield would win 3-2 over the Liberty Leopards. Brookfield remains undefeated here in opening week moving to 2-0 on the young campaign. Meanwhile the hard fought Leopards from Liberty fell to 1-2 after their first week of action. Brookfield will defend home court yet again this weekend as they host the Lions of Heartland Christian on Saturday at 11:30AM. Liberty gets the weekend off before finishing off a three game road stance against Girard on Monday.

 

*Contributed By YSN’s Alek Koberna