Extended scoring runs by Danville proved too much for host Cardington to overcome in a Thursday night KMAC volleyball contest.

After the teams split a pair of closely-contested sets, with Danville winning the first 25-21 and the Pirates taking the second by a 25-19 margin, the Blue Devils picked up wins by scores of 25-13 and 25-14 to claim a 3-1 win.

One thing was consistent in each of the four sets: Danville would get a large run early in the game and the Pirates would have to try to overcome a deficit to catch up to their opponents.

“That’s been every game that we’ve played; we’ve given them a big run,” said first-year head coach Linda Brininger. “We’re very young — I don’t want to use that as an excuse — I have two seniors who’ve played varsity last year and that’s it. The other ones got a little bit of time, but you know the history of Cardington volleyball and when you’re this young, they do try, but they get down and they haven’t learned how to fight back yet.”

In the first set, the Pirates surrendered five straight points to open the contest and spent the rest of it battling back from that deficit. Lundyn Blevins scored three straight points and Alexis Longsdorf added two to bring their team within an 8-7 margin.

The team continued to work back into the contest, even taking an 18-17 lead after Blevins added two more points later on. However, with the score 21-19 in favor of the Pirates after a Chloe Nida serve, Danville scored once on defense and then got five straight on their next serve to take a 1-0 lead in the match.

In the second set, Cardington was able to complete their comeback. Trailing 10-5 after seven straight points scored by the Blue Devils, the team got a defensive score followed by three points from Celia Hall. Rylee Donkin then added one and Blevins scored six straight to turn that deficit into an 18-12 lead. Danville would close within a 21-19 margin, but the Pirates got a defensive point followed by three from Hall to tie the match at one set each.”

“They’re a great group of girls,” said Brininger of her team. “I love them to death and we’re just going to keep fighting.”

Unfortunately for the Pirates, they would not be able to withstand Danville’s runs in the following two sets. After a defensive score and a serving point by Blevins staked Cardington to a 2-0 lead in the third, the Blue Devils responded with eight straight points and never looked back. While the Pirates did get within a 13-12 margin, they would then surrender 12 of the set’s final 13 points to fall into a 2-1 hole in the match.

Another big Blue Devil run put Cardington into another big hole in the fourth, as nine straight points turned a 2-2 tie into an 11-2 Danville lead in a set they would lead the rest of the way by no fewer than seven points.

Brininger noted that she is tinkering with her team’s line-up due to an injury recently suffered by junior Ashlynn Troyer and is hoping that will pay off down the line.

“We moved our big middle Madison Caulkins to the outside to try to get her the ball more,” she said. “It didn’t really pan out tonight, but that’s what we’re going to go with. We’re going to stick with that and try to keep her outside to get some more reps.”

Rob Hamilton can be reached at 419-946-3010, ext. 1807. Connect with him on Twitter at @SportsMCS