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Divine intervenes, helps Greencastle beat North Putnam for County Championship
By GRANT WIEMAN
Sports Editor
ROACHDALE -- Greencastle has come a long way in the first few weeks of the season. The Tiger Cubs began the year knowing they had talent, but they were incomplete.
They had a goal in mind, banded together, put in a lot of hard work and on Saturday the Tiger Cubs became the 2013 Putnam County Tournament champions, beating host North Putnam in the title game 25-15, 25-13.
"At the beginning of the year their goal was to win County," first-year GHS coach Maggie Walters said. "We said, 'Alright, but you're going to have to work hard every single practice,' and they've done that every single day since then."
The Tigers Cubs (6-4) started the season with three straight losses but made steady improvements, peaking on Thursday with a straight-sets win against athletic powerhouse Tri-West.
"Coming off of Thursday's game I definitely thought we were ready to win the county tournament," Walters said.
Greencastle took to the air for its straight-set win against North Putnam, with junior hitters Olivia Divine, Quinci Miller and Jessica Lenihan picking up five kills each in the championship match.
The Cougars knew exactly the challenge they'd be facing, NPHS coach Brandy Dickson said. North Putnam had scouted Greencastle twice previously, including earlier this week, and had a good look at the Tiger Cubs when they were pushed to three sets in the opening round against Cloverdale on Saturday.
"We thought we had a pretty good game plan of what we needed to do to stop them," Dickson said. "We knew we needed to shut down (Divine), especially from the hitting line, and shut down Quinci.
"When you really look back, they really didn't hit that well against us. We just didn't receive and our offensive transition really, really struggled."
With Divine on the outside and Miller in the middle occupying the Cougars' blockers, junior setter Taylor Stoltey spread the ball around to Lenihan, junior Tera Amis and Allison White.
The connection Stoltey has made with her hitters has been one of the biggest improvements for the Tiger Cubs, Walters said, and it is largely because the team has such great chemistry.
"They're all really good friends to begin with," she said, "but when they get on the court they support each other 100 percent and that is huge for us.
"That's whey we've been winning games."
Greencastle was pushed to the limit in its semifinal match. Cloverdale controlled the first set, winning 25-19, but the presence of Divine and Miller above the net wore down the Clovers.
With Cloverdale forcing the action, GHS was content to sit back, wait for a mistake and pounce. The Tiger Cubs took the next two sets 25-20 and 15-12.
"The girls played their hearts out and it was a tough loss for us," Cloverdale coach Kathy Moore said.
The loss snapped a streak of three-straight titles for Cloverdale. The Clovers had won nine of the previous 10 tournaments.
North Putnam reached the championship game by opening the tournament with an easy win against South Putnam, 25-7, 25-7.
The Eagles' failure to put up any resistance hurt North Putnam in the championship, Dickson said, because it prevented them from learning from any adversity.
The Cougars have now reached the championship game -- and lost -- for the past four years. While the team has improved each season, another school has always been there to step up and another new talent has intervened.
North Putnam believed this year would be different; the players believed that this was their year.
"I'm sure our seniors are extremely disappointed," Dickson said. "I don't think we were overconfident, but we really believed coming in that we could beat any team in the county.
"Volleyball is just one of those things that in any given day, in any given game, anything can happen. Unfortunately it didn't go our way today."
Sophomore Taylor Nauert led the Cougars with six kills and two blocks in the championship match. Senior Kelsey Reed had five assists and junior Morgan Sanford had four.
While their fate as tournament runners-up is set, the seniors on North Putnam will have one more chance to gain possession of the Putnam Pride when they plays at Greencastle on Oct. 3.
Greencastle will now move forward with its season knowing the team has already accomplished its stated preseason goal with half of the year still to be played.
Winning the County Tournament was the team's goal, right coach?
"Well, they have another goal," Walters said. "To make a run in sectionals. ... They want to win sectionals, and I think that's a possibility.
"If they play like (Saturday) and keep working hard there's no reason that we shouldn't."
2013 Putnam County Volleyball Tournament
At North Putnam
Championship match
North Putnam.............15 13
Greencastle.................25 13
Individual stats
Points-ace
NP: Bowling 4-0; Lucas 1-1; Wiatt 4-1; Asbell 1-0; Mindiola 2-0; Millican 1-0
GC: D Stoltey 7-1; Divine 4-2; Downing 3-0; Miller 3-2; T Stoltey 9-1; Lenihan 5-3
Kills-assist
NP: Nauert 6-0; Reed 0-5; Sanford 1-3; Asbell 1-0; Mindiola 1-0
GC: Divine 5-0; Downing 1-0; Miller 5-0; Lenihan 5-0; Amis 3-0; White 1-1; T Stoltey 17-0
Blocks: NP 2 (Nauert 2); GC 3 (Miller 2, Divine)
Semifinal 1
South Putnam.................. 7 7
North Putnam................. 25 25
Semifinal 2
Cloverdale........................ 25 20 12
Greencastle....................... 19 25 15