ELON, N.C. – With the Elon University volleyball team trailing North Carolina Central 15-8 in the third set Sunday, head coach
Mary Tendler needed a spark. To find it, she went to her bench and called on Elon's birthday girl.
Freshman middle blocker Kyla Johnson, who turned 18 on Sunday, checked in for the Phoenix for the first time in the match. The Phoenix had trailed the entire set and the team's seven-point deficit when Johnson entered was Elon's largest in the frame.
"I knew the moment wasn't too big for her," Tendler said. "We just needed something to get us going."
Johnson immediately provided the spark Tendler was after, as she combined for a pair of blocks with fellow freshman Cameron Lanier as part of a quick 4-0 Phoenix run. Johnson added two more kills and blocks to help fuel a furious Elon rally before slamming down her fourth kill of the set on match point to finish off the comeback, secure an Elon victory and commemorate her birthday in style.
"It felt really good," Johnson said. "It was really nice to get that last kill and celebrate my birthday."
After appearing in all of Elon's first seven matches this season, Johnson did not see the court on Friday in the team's home opener against Western Carolina. Tendler said having players like Johnson available to make an impact off the bench will serve the team well as it heads into CAA play.
Johnson was not Elon's only middle to shine on Sunday, as fellow freshman Caroline Berlekamp was a focal point in Elon's offense throughout the match. With six kills in the first set, she set a new career-high and she finished the match with a team-best 13 kills on 18 attacks.
"Before the game, Coach [Tendler] was saying their middles stay narrow, so this was going to be a great opportunity for us to go out and do what we do best," Berlekamp said. "The connection with the setters today was amazing. Jessica [Parker] and Ericka [Link] did amazing and it just felt really good."
Berlekamp has now reached at least five kills in three matches this season and has double-digit attacks in each of Elon's last three contest. Tendler said she is pleasantly surprised with how quickly Berlekamp has developed her offensive game.
"She just keeps getting better," Tendler said. "She works hard in practice every day and makes changes and you could tell she had killer instinct today. She wasn't just hitting the ball over, she was like, 'I want to pound the ball to the floor.' It's neat to see that progression in her."
Of Elon's 45 kills Sunday, 21 came from the team's middle blockers. In addition to a strong combined effort from Berlekamp, Johnson and Lindsey Harris, Tendler credited the team's passing and setting for putting the middles in good positions offensively.
"Our middles were amazing. We knew we had an advantage there so we wanted to go to them," Tendler said. "You need good ball control to do that. Being able to dig the ball up to the net to the setter so we can set our middles was huge."
Elon won two tight sets to take control of the match, but the Phoenix lost the first four points of the third to fall behind. Needing a comeback to avoid a fourth set, Berlekamp said the team did not panic.
"We were tensing up a little bit after those two close sets," Berlekamp said. "We stayed calm and slowly came back through and got the job done."
Elon has had four different players pace the team in kills through nine matches this season but this was the first time a middle has registered the most. Johnson said the team's offensive versatility is helpful as it allows the team to gameplan differently depending on the opponent.
"We're all a team and we have trust with each other," Johnson said. "Our coaches are amazing at helping us get out there and win."
This was Elon's final non-conference match of the regular season as the Phoenix opens its CAA schedule with two matches at Hofstra next weekend. Tendler said she hopes the team's two victories this weekend will help propel them into conference play.
"It's great to have this momentum going into our first CAA weekend on the road," Tendler said. "We're a better team now than we were in our first match of the season and we're just going to keep building on that and keep getting better and better."
'Rising Phoenix' is a new student-led initiative to cover Elon Athletics. Through innovative content creation and storytelling, Elon University students will have the opportunity to highlight the moments, people and events that make an impact, leveraging the athletic department's various web and social media platforms for distribution. Follow Rising Phoenix on Twitter (@EURisingPhoenix) and Instagram (@elonrisingphoenix). Interested in joining this initiative as a content creator (video, graphics, writing, storytelling, or more)? Contact Jacob Kisamore at jkisamore@elon.edu.
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