No. 1 Arundel and No. 6 Broadneck were so evenly matched in Thursday night's girls volleyball game that neither could go on many of the long runs that usually let a team take control.
But Arundel did go on one in the first set and came up with another late in the final one, which allowed the Wildcats to escape with a 25-20, 25-22, 25-27, 25-21 victory over the visiting Bruins in an Anne Arundel County match.
Arundel (4-0, 2-0) scored the first six points of the match behind the strong serving of Lindsay Tapley and never trailed in the opening set. The Wildcats' second crucial run came late in the fourth set, when Broadneck (2-2, 1-1) appeared on the verge of tying the match.
The Bruins had won the third set and then taken a 17-14 lead in the fourth — after their own 16-8 roll — before Arundel suddenly turned things around. Ashlee Felton, who made a number of big plays at the net throughout the match, came up with two in a row that helped start a 5-0 run which gave the Wildcats a 19-14 lead.
Allie Orr served four straight points, including two aces, to give Arundel that lead, and the Wildcats never trailed again.
"Those were key," Arundel coach Ashley Yuscavage said. "They played hard, and they persevered when they needed to."
Both teams displayed their offensive power and tough defense. Ashlyn Tapley — Lindsay's twin sister — helped with 11 kills and 26 digs. Lindsay finished with seven kills, and Shannon Wilks added 22 digs as the Arundel defense often negated Broadneck's power at the net.
But Broadneck did a good job of answering Arundel's power. The Bruins got strong efforts from Mimi Graf, Dinah Jones, Karlee Vailant and Margaret Doody, especially in the latter part of the match.
The Bruins also did a good job of blocking at the net, often throwing up double-teams that stopped Arundel's power. But the Wildcats began changing up , angling their shots more effectively to get away from those double-teams.
"They knew where we were going, so we adjusted," Ashlyn Tapley said. "We knew we had to put the ball away to win."
Broadneck coach Scott Graf said his team was out of position a few times, but he liked what he saw overall .
"There's some things we need to work on," Graf said. "But we worked hard in practice, and I think it showed."