Doyle leads Oak Forest past Richards

Updated: March 22, 2011 4:16PM

A natural as an outside hitter, Oak Forest's Brittany Doyle spent more of her junior season - out of necessity - playing right side or middle for a Bengals team that, led by Natalie Fiore, won 32 games.

With Fiore having graduated, Doyle has gravitated back to where she feels most comfortable.

Her opponents? They aren't feeling comfortable at all.

The rifle-armed Doyle was a force on the floor in Oak Forest's 25-22, 22-25, 25-15 South Suburban crossover victory Monday over host Richards.

"Last year coach (Amanda) Brown worked hard with us, me and Alyssa (Hasman), as middles," said Doyle, who had nine kills and 11 digs.

"Outside has always been my main spot ever since club, but I think playing middle last year made us both better hitters."

Stephanie Dagenais (7 kills), Mary Nielsen (14 assists), Hasman (24 digs, 3 kills) and Gina Ryan (22 digs) also had big numbers for the Bengals (6-4, 4-0).

Richards (3-6, 1-3) was led by Hannah Jenkins (7 kills), Brianna LeBeau (7 blocks, 4 kills), Codie Morey (9 assists, 7 kills), Kara Rockey (14 digs) and Allison Stazak (15 assists).

One thing Brown is still trying to teach the 2010 squad is to come out swinging. In both Games 1 and 2 the Bengals came out flat-footed and fell behind.

In Game 1 the Bengals had to rally from a 10-4 deficit and didn't catch and pass Richards until back-to-back kills by Dagenais and Hasman made it a 20-19 proposition.

In Game 2 the Bulldogs bolted to a 15-7 advantage, only to have the Bengals again rally. This time, however, Oak Forest didn't push through, committing back-to-back hitting errors at the end.

During one stretch Monday, Doyle pounded out five kills over nine volleys. Eventually, she and the Bengals seemed to wear out Richards, which had a fatal stretch in Game 3 in which it made five unforced errors.

The Bengals survived, but Brown wants more.

"We have not been very good about getting out and setting the tempo and the pace we want to play," Brown said. "We find ourselves more often than not either tit for tat, back and forth, or even down and having to claw our way back.

"It's happened to us so many times I feel it's a little bit dangerous because the kids kind of feel that no lead is insurmountable. That's good, you don't want your team to quit. But not every team is going to have a little bit of a breakdown and let you back into a match."

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