Janae Bradford is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Bourgade Catholic for AZPreps 365.

Thursday night’s girls volleyball match between the Bourgade Catholic Golden Eagles and the Scottsdale Christian Eagles displayed hope for both programs. Scottsdale completed its fifth sweep of the season (25-8, 25-16, 25-17) in the Golden Eagles’ nest.

All eyes were on Scottsdale Christian’s (5-5, 3-4) tall front-row hitters who tallied 31 kills with at least 10 each set. Nine kills came from junior Marie Fox, eight from junior Reece Gibson and seven from senior captain Bella Anderson. 

Eagles coach David Dickerson was satisfied with the poised performance from his young team and gave credit to their experience.

“It’s simple volleyball, but it’s really true when you have a young team like this,” Dickerson said. “When you control the ball, you can hit. You can’t hit unless you control the ball. A lot of the hitting today looked good, but it started with a good touch.” 

That good touch came from freshman setter Brooklynn McNulty. Scottsdale dominated the assist category 28-6, and McNulty had 27 of them. 

This performance did not surprise her coaching staff and marked just the beginning of her high school career.

“It’s fun to work with her because she has a lot of the skills already set,” Dickerson said. “So, you can really coach her on some of the strategies and decision-making.”  

Bourgade (1-9, 1-7) made decision-making improvements as well and acknowledged how important it was to implement lessons from practice into the game. 

“The things we worked on yesterday helped them in the game,” Golden Eagles coach Raleen Naki-Bajet said. “A lot of the things were defensive tactics and mechanisms, so we tried to conquer that.”

The Golden Bears finished with a season-high five blocks, three of them coming from sophomore Kyra Williams in the third set.

Even with another low-scoring first set, 25-8, Bourgade did not quit, putting up 16 points in the second set. The Golden Bears got more comfortable attacking the ball going from two kills in the first set to five kills in the second.

“We knew that they were taller than us, but I think overall our defense was solid and well-kept,” Naki-Bajet said. “I just think that we've been lacking communication, so as soon as we get that and we wrap our defense up, I think we will be good.”

Bourgade senior Krystina Rabadi, known as the team’s energy source, came to life in the second set with three kills and a better attitude. She carried the positive mentality into the competitive third set.

Rabadi opened the third set with two aces and a non-assisted kill to the deep right corner, which is one of her favorite moves. Bourgade took a 6-3 lead as a result of Scottsdale’s attack errors and Rabadi’s volleyball IQ.

“Just reading their defense, knowing where the libero was at and tipping it to the opposite side of the libero,” Rabadi said recalling her strategy in the third set. “It comes with reading both sides of the court at the same time.”

She did not rest the entire match and was still able to contribute to the Golden Eagles’ momentum increase. This was no surprise for Naki-Bajet, who has been the coach as long as Rabadi has been on the team.

“Her presence is very important because she has the leadership capacity that our underclassmen and some of her teammates don’t have right now,” Naki-Bajet said. “They’re still trying to find their identity, and I think for Krystina, she actually knows where she's going and who she wants to be as a part of this team.”

A loss is never what a team wants, but Naki-Bajet is glad to see the pieces come together.

“I think they finally started to realize that we have to play the sport that we love,” Naki-Bajet said. “Ultimately, it comes down to chemistry, trusting each other and having that resilience.”

Bourgade Catholic travel to Fountain Hills High School (5-4, 5-4) for a conference match Monday at 6 p.m. Scottsdale Christian heads right back to the court Friday and Saturday for the “Spiketown” Invitational Tournament at Benjamin Franklin High School.