The Bradford High School gymnasium was electric on Monday night — and for good reason.

Otto-Eldred defeated Bradford in an intense, back-and-forth five-set volleyball match (25-20, 9-25, 27-25, 11-25, 15-13) to pick up its second victory of the season in front of a large crowd.

The two teams swapped the first four sets leading into the 15-point fifth and final set. In that one, the Owls jumped out to an 8-3 and 10-8 leads, but were unable to withstand a late Terror barrage of points.

The set was tied at 13-13 before Otto scored the last two points to close out a huge victory.

“Once we got a few in a row and built their confidence a little bit it kept them in the match,” Otto-Eldred head coach Jame Thomas said. “We had two sets where our passing wasn’t very good so that’s pretty much the reason why we got beat the two sets we did. Once we got that together, everything came together.”

The Terrors were led by senior Harlee VanScoter, who had a massive game at the net. She finished with 20 kills, three blocks and 25 digs. She dominated the last set with five kills and six digs.

“She’s one that really has to keep herself up and everybody else up to,” Thomas said of VanScoter. “When she has a little bit of trouble, it’s tough for her. But I was proud of her late in the set because she pulled it out and buckled down to finish the job.”

Haylee Frederick (seven digs, six kills), Reilly Raught (eight kills, four blocks, three digs) and Jadelyn Spinney (16 digs) also had big matches for Otto (2-1).

After losing just one set over their first two matches, the Owls found themselves in a bit of unfamiliar territory down two sets to one on Monday.  

They were able to win the second and fourth sets by a combined 50-20, but weren’t able to keep up the momentum when they switched sides.

In the last set, according to first-year Bradford head coach Steve Daniels, the Terrors just came out with more intensity.

“Otto came out swinging,” he said. “I give them all the props in the world, they wanted to beat the ball into the dirt and they did it. That was the ball game.”

Laney Kahle had 23 assists to pace Bradford, while senior libero Brittany Rounsville contributed 13 digs. Ashton Himes added seven kills.

Daniels, who spent last season as an assistant coach, knows first-hand how dominant Otto has been over the last several years — including a 25-1 mark in 2017 — so he was extremely pleased that his team was able to keep pace and nearly beat the Terrors.

“I’m very proud of them,” he said. “We’ve got work to do, and hopefully we don’t feel like this again.

“I think it motivates us going forward more than anything,” he added. “Last week we were pretty energized and we were ready for this game and now we have something to work for the rest of the year.”

Both teams take to the court again today. Otto travels to Smethport, and Bradford is on the road against Ridgway.