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Cougars rally back for four-set win against South Vermillion
ROACHDALE --Two sets into the penultimate match of the season, North Putnam's volleyball squad seemed to be in cruise control in its match against South Vermillion.
Having trailed for all but a single point in the opening two sets, the Wildcats finally sprang into life, winning the third set and leading by seven in the fourth set. A strong rally for the Cougars late in that set, however, was enough to get the Cougars a win, 25-19, 25-11, 17-25 and 25-22.
North Putnam head coach Brandy Dickson said the match was a positive outing for the squad after being swept by Southmont in its previous match.
"I was really happy in those first two sets and how we stepped up and played," Dickson said. "Our communication and teamwork was really there over the whole night.
"To come back from that many down in the last set was just awesome."
The match started off favorably for the hosts as the Cougars only trailed at 1-2 and held a comfortable five-point advantage midway through the first set.
Central to the match was North Putnam's challenge in facing Wildcat senior Brooke Harvey, whom Dickson said carried the bulk of South Vermillion's attacking threat.
"We knew we had to take advantage of when (Harvey) was in the back row," Dickson said. "We knew coming in that she got the ball 80 to 85 percent of the match.
"We knew we had to shut her down and I felt Shay Lucas, Bethany Wiatt and Raegan Bowling did a really nice job of shutting her down when she was swinging from the back row. That's something we had not seen a lot of this year."
Though South Vermillion came within two at 16-14, the Cougars pulled away late in the match to cement a 25-19 win.
The momentum coming out into the second set was clearly in North Putnam's favor as the hosts jumped out to a 9-3 lead early and only increased it as the set rolled on. The 25-11 win looked to have set the table for a quick night for the hosts.
South Vermillion finally came out swinging in the third set, riding Harvey out to a 6-1 lead early. The five-point gap was only briefly breached late in the set as the Cougars were pinned back by a barrage of strong Wildcat serves.
Even though the squad fell 17-25 in the third set, Dickson said the team was not discouraged.
"Mentally, they were still in the game," Dickson said. "We had already seen that we could beat them in the first two sets but there were some things that didn't go our way. We dug ourselves in a hole and had to adjust quickly."
Suddenly rejuvenated, the visitors continued humming along, scoring the first five points of the fourth set and threatened to put the round away quickly when they led 8-17.
North Putnam finally strung together a strong passage of play, scoring six of the next seven points to cut the gap to 14-18.
With the momentum back on their side, the Cougars made a final push to take the set and did so with Taylor Nauert watching from the bench.
Bowling put together the longest serve set of the night while Madi Asbell and Adri Millican did the heavy lifting on the front line, scoring 10 of the last 13 points to stun the Wildcats and win the match 3-1.
Dickson said that the performance late in the match was a result of getting their confidence back late and putting the match away when they had the chance.
"We had some key serves by Kelsey at a critical time that got our confidence up," Dickson said. "We also knew we had to take advantage of having Harvey being in the back row.
"Madi and Adri really stepped up there in the end. Our setters also did a nice job of controlling the second pass."
North Putnam will honor their seniors Wednesday night when the squad hosts Danville. Dickson said that playing back-to-back matches was okay with the Cougars currently on Fall Break.
"We needed some rest," Dickson said. "We practiced Monday and this was a good win for us going into tomorrow. This is probably the closest and the most together I've seen the team the whole season.
"We've been working on swinging hard in practice and tonight the girls saw what happens when they swing hard in the match. We've got to do that tomorrow as well against Danville."
At North Putnam
South Vermillion 19 11 25 22
North Putnam 25 25 17 25
Next Match: North Putnam (12-12) hosts Danville Wednesday.