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Cougars clamp down on Eagles
The North Putnam volleyball team beat host South Putnam in the first West Central Conference game of the season for both teams on Thursday, stifling the Eagles 25-22, 25-16, 25-19.
It was the third win in as many matches for the Cougars, who have one more tune-up before the Putnam County tournament on next Saturday.
"That was a good win for us," NPHS coach Brandy Dickson said. "We had a lot of players do some good things throughout the game, but we also have some things we need to work on going into next week."
Led by senior Madi Asbell and sophomore Taylor Nauert, the Cougars poached at the net with a bibulous thirst for ending points early, which seemed to knock the wind out of the Eagles.
South Putnam played well in the first set, and battled throughout, but they seemed to be missing a final push of momentum that could have given the Cougars a game.
After being pushed to the limit in the first game, North Putnam opened game two with a 3-0 lead behind the serve of Kelsey Reed. South Putnam never got closer than two for the rest of the set.
Nauert had four kills that game, Asbell two and sophomore Jenny Heron two. Junior Shay Lucas had six points and two aces.
"We're trying something new with our serve receiving and they weren't super comfortable with it tonight," SPHS coach Deanna Long said. "We had a three-person receive and now we're going to try a four- to try to plug up some holes."
With senior Emily Clark serving to open game three, the Eagles jumped out to a 3-0 lead themselves, but the team's lack of communication and poor serving made it tough to hold the advantage.
SPHS had errors on 4-of-18 service attempts in the final set.
"We're still having difficulties with our serving," Long said. "It was our first home game so I know they were kind of jittery."
Although it was a relatively comfortable win for the Cougars, Dickson said the team had a number of things to work on before the rematch with South Putnam next Saturday.
The biggest, she said, was fundamentals.
"We're going to have a big push," Dickson said. "We're going to have three tough practices next week before we have a game. ... We have the talent we just are not putting things together the way I think we should be and it just comes down to fundamentals."
North Putnam hosts Rockville on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in its final tune-up for the Putnam County Tournament. South Putnam plays at Owen Valley on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Grabservations
North Putnam has a roster full of servers capable of taking over a game.
Tonight it was Shay Lucas, on other days it's been Kelsey Reed, Madi Asbell, Taylor Nauert or Bethany Wiatt. The deep rotation on the backline means the Cougars are capable of going on a big run at anytime, so the team is never out of a match.
South Putnam has more talent than their record shows.
The Eagles have athletes all over the court, but it will take them a few more practices for that to translate to volleyball. They have quickness (Aubrey Nichols, Emily Clark), height (Katie Hewitt, Emily Dobson), strength (Kenzie Trisler, Kelly Hayden) and explosiveness (Katie McHugh, Carey Tanner), but they're still trying to put all those pieces together. If they can, it will be tough for opponents to counter.
The Cougars seem to really like each other.
This is evident on the court in their communication, but also after matches when they are helping each other with homework and gossiping. Dickson said she put a lot of effort into team-building activities throughout the summer and it is paying off. That chemistry keeps the Cougars positive when they get down in a match.
At South Putnam
North Putnam.........25 25 25
South Putnam.........22 16 19
JV score
North Putnam 25 25
South Putnam 23 15