Boys volleyball: Medina dominates Brunswick in GCC matchup

MEDINA — A well-rounded Medina boys volleyball team took another step toward the Greater Cleveland Conference championship Tuesday with a dominating 25-17, 25-12, 25-12 victory over young, inexperienced and rebuilding Brunswick.The Bees (14-4, 8-0) maintained a two-game lead over Euclid in the loss column and extended their margin to three over the Blue Devils (9-8, 6-3), who led 14-11 in the first set but were outscored 64-27 the rest of the way."We were just making a lot of mistakes," said libero turned setter Trent Balicki, who had 22 assists, 12 digs and nine aces. "We were all playing new positions because our setter is out. Once we figured things out, we were OK."Medina setter Brayden Howells, who had his appendix removed less than two weeks ago, is expected to return Thursday for a match against Euclid. A win would give the Bees a three-game lead in the GCC and all but lock up the league title.Medina, which had an incredible 16 aces in three sets, in part because of poor serve reception by Brunswick, got 14 kills and two aces from Oliver Singer, six kills from Ashton Knowles and 13 digs from Oliver Niehaus.Though new to setting, Balicki quickly figured out one thing: When in doubt, get the ball to the hard-hitting, left-handed Singer, regardless of where he is on the court."He's the go-to," Balicki said. "When I don't know where to set, I just go to him."The 5-foot-10 Singer, who owns a 38-inch vertical leap, has an equally simple philosophy when it comes to hitting."(I just) hit it as hard as I can," the senior said. "I know when I'm hitting it as hard as I am, I'm going to hit the back wall a few times, but that's just part of it."Brunswick never mounted much of an attack, getting most of its points on Medina errors, but Adam Delessandro finished with 10 digs and seven assists and Chase McClanahan had a team-high four kills. Mason Dickson, Ben Klein and Max Shapovalov also had a few good moments, but as a team the Blue Devils didn't have nearly enough of them."We've played better games," Delessandro said. "We came in with a pretty good mentality, but fell through on serve receive. Our whole offense fell apart from there."In an extremely sloppy start to the match, the Blue Devils led the opening set 14-11 before Balicki served for four points in a 5-0 run. That extended to 14-3 to close the set and Medina never looked back."We gave them all their points," Singer said. "We just focused on keeping the ball in and hitting corners."With the Bees up 12-6 in the second set, Balicki had an incredible stretch where he served for nine straight points, seven of them on heavy topspin aces. When Balicki finally made a service error with the Bees up 21-6, his teammates jokingly booed from the bench."It's part hitting it in certain spots and part hitting it as hard as I can," he said. "I try to throw the other team off. When I have it on, I have it on. I get in a groove sometimes. You don't even have to think. You just do it."Medina, which also got solid efforts from Trevor Rohde, Aiden Gontarz and Izayah Crawford, fell behind 3-0 in the third set but quickly went up 14-6. From there, it was only a matter of time, with Singer ending the match with a kill off a Balicki set."He's a really good all-around player," Singer said of Balicki. "He's never set before, but he's adapted very well for just getting thrown in midway through the season."Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.