CUBA CITY — Darlington (17-9, 7-4) only needed three sets on Thursday night as they sent Boscobel (7-15, 2-8) home with a 3-0 (25-9, 25-17, 25-17) loss.

Aces accounted for almost half of the Redbirds’ 9-4 opening run, with Aubrey McCarthy tallying two aces, and Sadie Goebel and Lilly Ritchie scoring an ace apiece.

Maddie Gratz was also an effective attacker over the same stretch, as she scored a trio of kills.

A Bulldog timeout did little to slow Darlington’s roll — Jaidyn Evenstad twice put a touch on the ball that got it past Boscobel’s players at the net to an open hole in their center court.

Ava Hendrickson and McCarthy also showed bursts of strength at the net in the first set.

Hendrickson was ready as Bulldog Trisa Fargen spiked at the center of the net, jumping to meet her attack and block it.

McCarthy’s moment came as Evenstad grabbed a dig, floated the ball to Allie Andrews, and Andrews set the ball to McCarthy along the left side of the net.

McCarthy leapt into the air and fired the ball diagonally to the back right corner of the Boscobel court, passing the ball by five different Bulldogs as it crashed to the floor.

The other part responsible for the Redbirds’ dominant start — attacking errors from Boscobel.

Up to a 13-6 advantage for Darlington, the Bulldogs only committed one attacking error. 

Over the remaining 15 rallies, Boscobel committed four more attacking errors, including the set point.

Starting the second set, yet another attacking error was committed by the Bulldogs on the opening rally, and the Redbirds, particularly McCarthy, capitalized.

McCarthy brought down four consecutive aces to push their lead to 5-0, and it wasn’t until after Lilly Ritchie scored a pair of kills that Boscobel saw any points in their favor.

The Bulldogs surged, as Erin Knowles raced to the net for a pair of blocks and a touch kill over Gratz to bring the game within three points, 7-4.

A serve error by Boscobel and an ace from Goebel pushed the Darlington lead back to five points.

The Bulldogs carried a 6-2 run to climb within one point, when the Redbirds locked down to build a five-point, 16-11 lead that’d be the closest Boscobel got to leading the set.

Errors plagued the Bulldogs down the stretch, as they accounted for six of Darlington’s nine points to close the set.

The other three points came from Hendrickson, Gratz, and Goebel.

Hendrickson and Gratz came via kills, while Goebel scored her third ace of the night.

Just as with the first set, the Redbirds’ second set win ended with an attacking error courtesy of Boscobel.

The Bulldogs adjusted for the third, and came out with an intensity that matched Darlington’s.

Boscobel maintained a slim, one-point lead through the opening rallies.

Their biggest problem was partly responsible for the Redbirds keeping pace.

The Bulldogs committed three errors alongside three scores from Darlington as the Redbirds worked to overtake Boscobel.

Gratz blocked an attack from Knowles, an Evenstad spike rebounded off Knowles out of bounds, while both Evenstad and Gratz met an attack at the net for another score.

The Bulldogs got another taste of the lead ahead either squad crossing the double-digit threshold, but a 10-9 advantage for Darlington was the final lead change of the night.

As with the prior two sets, errors killed any chance of a Boscobel comeback as they gave up seven points by committing one serving error, three two-hit violations, and three attacking errors

The Redbirds also had a more than competent attack with Gratz and Evenstad scoring a pair of kills, McCarthy scoring a block and a kill, and Zoie Zuberbuhler tallying an ace in the 15-8 race to the match win.