Late tactical switch helps No. 3 Centennial slip past No. 2 Reservoir

Late in the fifth set of Tuesday night’s volleyball showdown between the top two teams in Howard County, Centennial setter Brianna Bossom decided to switch from setting the outside to feeding middle hitter Kaley Maclellan.

That strategy worked perfectly as Maclellan pounded out a couple of kills to go with two blocks in the No. 3 Eagles’ final six points of the match, sealing a 26-14, 16-25, 25-21, 9-25, 15-9 victory over No. 2 Reservoir, the defending Class 3A state champion.

“They had a great defense which makes us work a lot harder,” said Maclellan, a 6-foot-2 junior. “They did have a huge block up and our team works really hard on splitting that since we have seen that in a lot of teams that have been very good in our county and in our state division.”

Bossom figured the Gators would be looking for the hits to come from Mailinh Godshall, who had 19 kills in the match.

“I was going to Kaley at the end, because I could tell she really wanted it,” said Bossom, who had 28 assists.

“I was setting Mailinh a lot earlier in the game, so I could tell [the Gators] were leaning towards her, so Kaley basically had a freer net than she normally would have. Normally, they would have camped out on the middles, but since I’d been setting outside at lot, they kind of freed her up and she was also moving her hitting lanes a lot which is nice.”

Maclellan finished with 19 kills and seven blocks.

In a back-and-forth match, the host Eagles (8-0 overall, 5-0 county) struggled through the fourth set as the Gators (5-2, 4-1) seized the momentum thanks in large part to the power of Mayah Tucker, Kelsey Holmes and Madison Hill. Seven of the last 10 points came on kills and one on a Chaeli Flotildes ace.

Centennial coach Mike Bossom said his players focused on a 0-0 start and then the Gators gave them the early momentum with hitting errors on the first two points.

“I think that kind of set the tone a little bit,” Reservoir coach Carole Ferrante said, “because you want to come out strong, especially when you come off a 25-9 win. You want to come out with a big play and then when you have three of your first four balls being errors, that’s not a way to get into a rhythm to finish a match.”

The Eagles took an 8-4 lead only to see the Gators tie the game on a deep kill from Tucker, who led Reservoir with 17 kills, but as it had all night, Centennial’s back row defense helped them rally.

Libero Caleigh Kim along with Godschall and defensive specialists Christine Liu and Jenny Dong let very few balls hit the floor during the match and another great dig helped keep the point alive. Riley Middleton finished it off with a kill to give the Eagles the lead for good, 9-8.

Then Maclellan took over. She sandwiched a kill between blocks on Tucker that boosted the Eagles’ lead to 12-8.

Ferrante called two timeouts to try to rally the Gators. After the first, however, a Godschall kill and a Reservoir net violation brought the Eagles to match point.

After another timeout, Tucker held off the Eagles with a deep-court kill, but Maclellan finished the match with a short easy kill that caught Reservoir off guard.

“She actually won the fifth set by herself,” Ferrante said of Maclellan. “When we called the timeout, we said, ‘We’ve got to keep the ball away from her. Why are we hitting hard cross into the middle block when all night long, she proved that she was going to be a strong blocker?’ I think we did a decent job with our blocking as well, but she definitely showed at the net. She was where she needed to be and she was cutting that angle out and we didn’t do enough of what we needed to do with the ball to get around her.”

Mike Bossom said he attributed the Gators fifth-set difficulties to the Eagles back row defense.

“That’s where the pressure goes back to the other side,” he said of the two hitting errors to open the set. “I think part of that pressure was they were getting dug, so they were trying to do something a little different to not get dug and that really kind of cascades.”

The Eagles had 91 digs in the match, including 33 by Godschall and 30 by Kim.

The Gators also played a solid defensive game with libero Gabby Allen finishing with 21 of their 80 digs. Smith and Destiny Olamide combined for seven blocks.

Centennial’s victory was its first over Reservoir since 2018, but the two could meet again in the Class 3A playoffs.