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Cougars advance to volleyball championship, fall to Athenians
ROACHDALE -- The North Putnam Cougars volleyball team had high hopes going into the Early Bird Volleyball Tournament along with Attica, Crawfordsville and Mooresville.
The Cougars would advance to the championship game where they would fall to the Athenians.
The day started off bright in the first round as the Cougars beat Attica 2-1 (21-25, 25-19, 15-13) and advanced to the final.
"Attica was a very scrappy team with a couple of players who, while they weren't very tall, could jump like they were 6 feet," NPHS coach Brandy Dickson said. "I was very proud of the way we fought our way back, even after being down several times."
Sophomore Taylor Nauert, junior Morgan Sanford and senior Bethany Wiatt really set the tone for the Cougars. Nauert was 15-20 on attacks with eight kills, Sanford had 15 assists and Wiatt was 13-14 serving and had four aces.
"Bethany Wiatt did a great job receiving serves this game which really sparked our offense," Dickson said.
In the third set with the score tied at 13 all, junior Kaitlin Mindiola received the serve perfectly and off the set of Sanford immediately sent it to the floor for the point and the Cougars held on for the set and game one win.
"I was really impressed with Kaitlin Mindiola today. She did a nice job getting a block up on their outside hitter and had some good swings tonight," Dickson said.
Crawfordsville advanced to the championship game by beating Mooresville. The Athenians proved to be a tougher test for the Cougars than the Ramblers.
Before the championship game even started spectators and players saw something that they may never experience again at any sporting event.
A technical difficulty made during the build-up to the National Anthem led to a few minutes of silence. Some of the Athenian players began singing a cappella and the whole crowd joined along.
Once the game got underway you could tell that the Cougars were outmatched and the Athenians ended up winning the Early Bird Tournament 2-0 (25-13, 25-7).
The Cougars were behind in the first set 8-1, 18-7 and 22-11, eventually losing 25-13.
"We had discussed Crawfordsville all week and really felt going in that we had a plan to stop Crawfordsville. We knew we needed to shut down Taylor Luft and but we struggled to do so or to get any momentum going our way," Dickson said.
It was the same in the second set as well. The Athenians got off to a 7-0 lead and never looked back extending their lead to as much as 19. The Athenians took the set and the trophy winning 25-7.
"Adri Millican had to come out of game two before we started due to a serious illness and that, along with a lineup error, caused confusion on the court that we couldn't seem to get past. We have to learn to be mentally tough and adjust, especially in a big game like this," NPHS coach Dickson said.
"We face Western Boone Monday night, Tri-West Tuesday and Turkey Run on Thursday. It will be a challenging week but I am confident they are ready for it. It's early and I know we are going to surprise some teams this season."
At North Putnam
Game 1:
Attica.......................25 19 13
North Putnam...........21 25 15
Game 2:
Crawfordsville.............25 25
North Putnam.............13 7
Tournament individual stats
Attacks: Nauert 20-26, 12; Mindiola 8-9, 2; Millican 12-13, 5; Herron 10-12, 2
Assists: Sanford 15; Reed 5
Blocks: Nauert 3-1; Mindiola 2-0; Millican 2-1;
Digs: Wiatt 7
Serving, aces: Millican 9-11, 2; Wiatt 13-14, 4; Sanford 11-12; Reed 12-13; Nauert 3-3
Serve receiving: Wiatt 14-15