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The Bonner Springs volleyball team mustered just nine victories during the 2009 season. In 2010, BSHS went 17-19 but didn’t win its ninth match until Oct. 9.

Using nine wins as a benchmark, the Braves continue to pick up the pace. They won their ninth match of the season Tuesday night at the Bonner Springs District P.E. Center by disposing of Piper in a five-game slugfest. The Braves won game one 25-23, but Piper took game two by a 25-17 score. BSHS won game three 25-19 and Piper rolled 25-20 in game four before the Braves closed out the night with a 15-12 decision in game five.

The victory puts the Braves almost a month ahead of last year’s pace for victories, and it gave them a winning record at 9-8.

It’s taken a few years of hard work, but the attitude — and the results — of the volleyball program are different.

“They’re walking around school with their heads held high,” coach Heather Campbell said. “Somebody made the comment, ‘Are you going to put that in the (morning) announcements?’ Yeah, we’re putting stuff in the announcements because we have wins. Before, it wasn’t like we wanted to put it in because we lost, but now it’s like, ‘Hey, come watch us play!’”

A year after going 0-4 at the Baldwin Invitational, the Braves posted a 2-4 record and finished fifth on Saturday.

They followed that performance with Tuesday’s effort against Piper.

Game one seesawed as BSHS built multiple leads only to watch Piper even the score. The Braves had a 14-10 lead midway through the game, but Piper rallied and claimed a 23-22 advantage before BSHS scored three consecutive points. A kill by Erin Marx, a net violation by Piper and a combo block by Madison Scott and Marx secured the game for BSHS.

Piper dominated game two, jumping to a 15-6 lead and never looking back as the Pirates evened the match at one game apiece.

The Pirates raced to a 7-2 lead in game three, but Bonner Springs used a Scott kill and two more by Haley Hoffine to storm back and take the lead before pulling away for the victory.

Bonner Springs opened game four on a 7-0 run as LaVerta Hackney unleashed six aces. The Braves lost focus from there, however, and Piper used a flurry of kills by Megan Woolley and Tahje Ochs to erase the early deficit and take over the game.

Tied at two games apiece, Campbell asked her players to pick up their intensity in game five and not let the match slip away.

The Braves responded. After falling behind 5-3 early, they rattled off a 9-1 run and surged to a 12-6 lead. Scott and Kylee Timberlake both fired aces during the run, Marx and Erica Wilson combined for a block, and Hoffine tipped the ball over a pair of Pirate blockers for a kill.

The Pirates mustered one last rally and pulled within 13-12 before the Braves capitalized on two Piper hitting errors and closed out the victory.

“We let it get interesting, and it maybe should not have gotten as interesting as it was,” Campbell said. “But it was good to be in that situation and have the girls pull through and get the victory. In the past, we’ve been in that situation and we haven’t pulled through.”

The Braves’ ability to pull together and finish the match is the result of an attitude change within the program that has been developed through hard work.

“I think we’re finally getting used to winning. We’re starting to expect it,” Campbell said. “We know that if we go into a match and we watch them warm up, we knew that this is a beatable team. We just have to play hard and we can beat them. Just having that confidence now is helping.”

The schedule gets tougher quickly. The Braves play at 5 p.m. today at Gardner-Edgerton against GEHS and Blue Valley Southwest.

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