The Berkshire Badgers’ volleyball team has wasted little time in asserting themselves this season and continued their fast start by sweeping Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division foe Rootstown 25-16, 25-7, 25-21 last Thursday evening in Burton.
“We have been looking forward to that game,” said Coach Joan Prots. “Our mantra this year is to make sure we show up in every match no matter who it is so I think we have been doing a pretty good job of doing that and Thursday was no different in terms of how well we played.”
It marked the first time that the Badgers (7-0, 2-0) and Rootstown faced each other as conference foes, with the Rovers having joined the CVC Valley Division to replace Geauga County rival Cardinal, who departed for the Northeastern Athletic Conference. Although the 2025-26 season is the first time that the teams have played each other as conference rivals, they were already familiar with each other, having squared off for two consecutive years prior to last season.
“The two seasons before that we had played them so we were familiar with the fact that they are a good program and have good athletes so we were expecting a battle on Thursday,” noted the 21-year coach.
On Thursday, Berkshire pulled away after trading points with the Rovers at the beginning of the match. According to Prots, the Badgers’ offense started humming behind the service game of senior libero Delana Kellogg.
Prots said that Kellogg’s serves pushed Rootstown out of rhythm, which allowed the Badgers to speed up their offense and cruise to a 25-16 victory.
Kellogg recorded 26 points, 4 aces and 5 digs in the match.
Although Kellogg only tallied four aces, Prots credited her with some precise location on her serves, which allowed the Badgers’ offense to get into position.
“She was mixing it up and making them go long and go short and making them have to try to decide who was going to take the ball and hitting seams and so forth,” she added. “Their best hitter was in middle so when we were getting them out of system off of their serves, they weren’t able to feed her the ball probably as much as they would have liked to.”
Prots said that using an up-tempo system is one of Berkshire’s greatest offensive strengths and a good indicator of how comfortable the team is.
On the heels of a strong finish to the first set, the Badgers’ momentum caried into the second set, routing Rootstown 25-7 to take a commanding 2-0 lead.
In the third set, it was a tightly contested affair from the opening serve as the Rovers showed more aggression in their service game and offensive sets.
Prots acknowledged that the Badgers made some mental mistakes in the middle of the third set, allowing Rootstown to take a brief lead but recovered by getting back to the basics to clinch a 25-21 victory and their second straight league victory.
“I just reminded them from the sidelines that’s what we needed to do,” she said. “I talked again to our defensive setters about talking to their hitters, so we were able to get back to the shots and the swings that were helping us score and we remembered where those were.”
In addition to claiming another CVC Valley Division victory, Prots said that Badgers remain on track to accomplish one of their top goals, which is to repeat as the league champions.
Prots has attributed Berkshire’s fast start to the fact that the team only graduated two seniors from last year, and has been fueled by the 2026 class of senior outside hitters Kate Miller, Jillian Smetana Marissa Rush, who have been four-year varsity starters.
“They have bene playing together since they were freshmen but the thing with this group is that they have been playing together even before they got to high school,” Prots said. “A lot of them have played outside of Berkshire as far as Junior Olympics and so forth so the volleyball knowledge in some of those top players is a very high volleyball IQ.”
With a strong nucleus of experience returning, the Badgers have been ahead of the curve to start the season, but Prots added that claiming another league banner is just one of their goals, seeking a deeper postseason run after the last several years of early exits.
Following a road match against league foe Kirtland on Tuesday and a home duel against league rival Chagrin Falls, Berkshire will host its annual volleyball tournament in Burton on Saturday morning at 9 a.m.
