Dulaney senior Cami Reed had a game-high 13 kills and five aces, while junior setter Serafina Reckamp had 28 assists to lead Dulaney to a 25-19, 25-12, 25-17 victory over visiting Towson.
“This is the best game [Reed] has had in her career with me,” Dulaney coach Cary Lyon said.
Reed had six kills in the first set, including four of the final seven points to break open a 17-17 tie.
“Our team is just really together this year,” Reed said. “We are all playing and lifting each other up and I think that when we have energy on the court and we are all able to be positive, it really helps us win.”
Towson had rallied behind the serving of Birdie Patterson for a 14-10 lead in the first set. She had an ace and Sarah Batie and Josie Reed each had a kill during the run. Dulaney rallied to tie behind the serving of Natalya Sabirzhanova and defense of libero Eileen Lee.
“[Lee] is the best libero in the county,” Lyon said.
The first set ended with a pair of aces from Dulaney’s Reed.
“That was probably a pretty good come up for us in Set 1 [17-17] versus a tough opponent,” Towson coach Morgan Puller said. “We are still trying to dial in a few things with some of the young players.”
Reed added five kills and Ellie Leone (10 kills) had a pair of kills and three aces in the second set when Towson struggled with serve-receive.
“I would say that was not our best day on serve-receive. Obviously we always have progress, but that’s not what we expect from our Towson volleyball,” Puller said. “So I know they are definitely feeling a little bit underwhelmed with how they played on that end. The little things matter and that’s what it came down to, when one person had a perfect pass, we just need to be able to execute.”
That made it difficult for the Generals to get into hitting rhythm. Shawna Dyer, a transfer from Eastern Tech, and Madi McGuinness led the Generals with four kills each and Dyer played solid defense.
Reckamp’s precision setting came even when she had to chase down passes and she got Leone more involved in the third set and she responded with five kills.
Dulaney also excelled from the service line with 20 aces, while Towson misfired on 12 serves, including several that were momentum busters.
The victory was the second sweep in a row for the Lions, who defeated McDonogh in their season opener. Last season, the Lions won 18 straight before losing in the state quarterfinals.
“We were undefeated last season so I feel like all of us kind of came in wanting to really like win and I think we all had good chemistry from last year and I thought we brought that into the season this year,” Reed said.
Lyon uses a team bonding exercise every week at practice to build chemistry.
“I let them out of practice 10 minutes early and they just do a circle where it’s we, me and you and every person on the team goes through and says what we as a team did well, what I personally did well and they point out somebody else on the team that did well,” he said.
Towson has lost its first three matches this season and has another road test at Mount de Sales Wednesday.
“It’s kind of fun we get to play Dulaney early,” Puller said. “We never get to play them this early, it’s always in October right before championships, so I’m excited to learn what we saw on their end and tighten up our side. It was really of Towson beating ourselves on some points.”
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