The Broadneck Bruins volleyball team showed it is on a mission in sweeping host Arundel, 15-5, 16-14, 15-7, last night in the Class 4A East region semifinals.
There is no question that the seventh-ranked Bruins (13-3) want a third straight region title and the chance to defend their state championship.
Broadneck travels to Frederick for tomorrow's 6 p.m. region final at Thomas Johnson, a 15-2, 15-2, 15-7 winner over No. 12 C. Milton Wright (12-3).
Dana Mullenhard, a junior hitter, led the Bruins over the No. 4 Wildcats (15-2) with 15 kills, two blocks and 23 points. She had 10 points in the first game, eight in the second and five in the third.
Six-foot-2 Cristin Van Dyke chipped in 11 kills and seven blocks and senior setter Hallie Fuller had five kills, four blocks and a match-high 48 assists.
Arundel swept the Bruins during the regular season and knocked them out of the county championship match.
Last week, Arundel lost the county championship to Severna Park in four games, but bounced back with a four-game quarterfinal victory at Westminster.
The Wildcats ran into a focused and intense Broadneck team yesterday.
"We really want to go all the way. It's important to us, " said the 5-10 Mullenhard, who said the Bruins watched Severna Park beat Arundel in the county final and learned a few things.
"We've been working a lot in practice on our blocking assign- ments to shut down their major hitters like[Tiffany Johnson]. She's an awesome hitter for being a sophomore. And we needed our intensity to stay up and things were totally different this time."
Johnson was limited by Mullenhard and her mates to eight kills and four blocks.
"We had some big blocks and Cristin [Van Dyke] was awesome on her blocks tonight, " said Mullenhard.
In addition to Mullenhard and Van Dyke, the Bruins also got key contributions at the net from Christina Green, Melissa Golob and Erin Lukasiewicz, who had 20 kills between them.
Mullenhard and Fuller said that coach Romonzo Beans had the team well-prepared.
"Coach Beans put us in the spot we needed to be and pushed us to the level to make us stronger where our weaknesses were the first time," said Fuller.
Beans said he had a plan to capitalize on Johnson's youth.
"I expressed to the middles that it's not about you, but what you can do to give us one-on-one situations and they sold it. We learned from the Severna Park county championship game to sit and wait for the blocks. We knew if it worked for them, it would work for us."
Said Arundel coach Greg Legrand: "We got outplayed, no doubt about it."
Alex McGuire was 16-for-16 serving, had seven kills and 33 digs for Arundel. Amanda Hernandez was 9-for-9 serving with four kills, five blocks and 25 assists.