Loch Raven High’s volleyball wanted to protect their home floor against Baltimore County power Towson. Unfortunately, the fourth-ranked Generals ruined Loch Raven’s plans as theydefeated the scrappy Raiders in four games, 25-18, 25-6, 25-27, 

“Loch Raven looks really good, they look pretty good in everything that they do, the have a quick offense,” said Towson coach Emily Berman, whose finished second to No. 3 Mount de Sales Academy at the Bulldog Tournament of Champions Saturday at North Caroline.

“We [Towson] came out really hard and focused, but slowly we started to make more errors and it brought us down as a team and it’s tough to go through that,” said junior outside hitter Lauren Bosse who finished the match leading her team with 16 kills.

Towson imposed their will against Loch Raven as the Generals went up 5-0 in the first game. The Raiders went a 4-0 run as they trailed by one, but Towson was able to keep Loch Raven at bay en route to victory.

The Generals dominated the second game. Bosse had five kills with the help from junior setter Ally Teuten who finished with 20 assists for the match. Loch Raven couldn’t get anything going as the second set was marred with service, passing and hitting errors. Towson easily took the second game 25-6 as the Generals began to sense a sweep of their county rivals.

Loch Raven bounced back in the third game. The Raiders opened up the third set with a 3-0 lead as the Raiders had the Generals on their heels for the first time in the match. A combination of General miscues and solid defensive for the Raiders got Loch Raven back in the game.

“I felt like everyone was making mistakes it was a big upset for our team,” said Bosse. “They [Loch Raven] played really hard got excited and they played really well.”

“I think we got a little complacent after we won the second game and we got a little lazy,” said Berman. We made 19 errors, we had hitting errors we had passing errors. Our defense didn’t really fall apart but everything else did.”

In a third game that had 10 ties and 11 lead changes, Towson was on the cusp of a sweep with match point at 24-23, but the Generals committed an attack error that gave Loch Raven new life. The Raiders capitalized on that mistake and won the next two points to force a fourth game while avoiding a the sweep in the process, 27-25. 

“I told them where to place the ball and to look for more roll shots and tips to us because they would be a little more smarter with the ball.” said Loch Raven coach Laura Shawaryn. “I also told them to be on their toes and make more quick passes and get the ball to the outside because their offense and defense might not be ready for us and we were able to do that.”

Loch Raven’s Lisa Anderson held the defense together as she had 20 digs with eight of those digs coming in the third game. Heather Shin delivered two service aces for the Raiders as well.

In the fourth game Loch Raven once again went up 3-0 on the Generals. But the Raiders began to make mistakes and Towson took advantage.

“We let them make the mistakes,” said Berman. “Then we let Lauren Bosse take charge and get the ball every time and let her get the kills.”

Towson went on an 8-2 run as Bosse had two kills as the Generals at one point held a 13-point lead to close out the match.

“Our coach [Berman] was very angry with us, as a coach should be for losing the third game,” said Bosse. “So we all realized that we had to step it up and win the fourth game and we just pushed through.”

Towson will try to build on Tuesday’s momentum, hosting Patapsco Thursday afternoon.

“We’re looking to have more energy and play as a team and try to focus on keeping the ball in play and let them [Patapsco] make the mistakes,” said Bosse.

“We can’t make that too many errors, we can’t make that many errors and expect to win,” said Berman.

Loch Raven travels to Catonsville, looking to rebound.

“We need to work on our covering, we’re hitting and we’re blocking but we are not their to cover the tips and we need to be a little quicker on our toes,” said Shawaryn.

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