Boyle (16-5) secured its third win in four days by rolling to a 17-5 lead in the second and deciding game. Within that stretch was a run of nine straight points that proved to be a crushing blow to Casey (6-11).
"Especially against good teams, you can't spot them 10 points and then decide that you want to play," Casey coach Rachel Taylor said.
Guthrie said the players in Boyle's senior-rich lineup began to feed off each others' successes, and some of them said they do that more easily because they are friends as well as teammates.
"We definitely feed, especially being friends. If we didn't have such a close relationship off the court, I highly doubt that we'd have such a good team," senior Ashley Campbell said.
"We have a strong bond. We pick each other up," senior Kelsey Coffey added.
Megan Kendrick helped pick Boyle up with three aces during the decisive run, which also included two blocks by Kylee Talbott and a kill by Catie Meyer.
"She really stepped up tonight," Guthrie said of Kendrick. "I've been really proud of her in the past couple weeks."
Kendrick finished with four aces and three kills, Talbott had five kills and four blocks Meyer had four kills and Kaley Jackson had three aces for Boyle.
No easy win
Still, it wasn't a cakewalk after Boyle built its big lead. Casey scored 12 of the next 15 points to pull within 20-17, threatening to force a third game before Boyle closed out the match.
"Their serves were strong, and they kept us on our toes. I wouldn't (say) we let them back in; I feel like they pushed themselves back in the game," Guthrie said.
Taylor said her team drew some inspiration from the two dozen or so Boyle boys who were cheering their classmates.
"Their crowd was the fuel that turned us around and got us back in the game," the Casey coach said. "We just have to come out with that mindset from the beginning that we're a good team and that we can play with Boyle and the other top teams in the region."
Emma Hogue had three kills and Faith Christian and Ashley McQueary had two each for Casey, which has recovered from a 1-7 start.
"We've gone back to two setters, we've got two really tall girls that are running our nets well and everybody else is kind of getting adjusted to covering from there up," Taylor said. "We're moving a lot better now than we were at the beginning of the season."
The last match in Casey's slow start was a 25-15, 25-17 loss to Boyle on Aug. 25, and Campbell said Boyle may have taken this match too lightly because of that result.
"I think we really underestimated (them). We came out confident, too confident, and we overlooked them," Campbell said.
Casey led 10-4 in the first game before Boyle took control with a 10-1 run that included two kills each by Meyer and Talbott and one each by Kendrick and Campbell.
"They've gotten so much better. They've really improved, and in that first set, they brought it," Guthrie said. "They were ready for us, and we finally got warmed up and realized we can't mess around, we've got to play ball."
