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Spikers open sectionals Thursday
Sectional play started at some of the larger tourney fields on Tuesday, with action at a majority of the sites getting in full swing on Thursday.
Quarterfinal matches will take place on Thursday at both North Montgomery (where Greencastle plays) and Monrovia (the site for North Putnam, South Putnam and Cloverdale), with semifinals set for Saturday morning and the finals later in the day on Saturday.
Greencastle is one of three teams at North Montgomery with a winning record, and the way the bracket shapes up those three schools (including Tri-West and Western Boone) could all reach the semifinals before meeting each other.
Tri-West’s 21 wins are the most of any team in the field, which could make the Bruins the unofficial tourney favorites. They defeated Lebanon 25-18, 15-25, 25-15, 25-22 on Tuesday in the opening round.
At Monrovia, none of the six teams has a winning record and the tourney is wide open.
Cascade has 11 wins and Southmont has 10.
Here is a look at each Putnam County squad entering the state tourney:
Greencastle (16-12)
Greencastle and Frankfort did not meet during the regular season.
The Hot Dogs enter the tourney on a two-match winning streak, defeating Rensselaer Central 2-1 in the Twin Lakes Invitational on Saturday and beating Southmont 3-1 on Monday.
“Looking to Frankfort, we know that they have some skilled attackers,” Greencastle coach Maggie Walters said. “We will need to be able to effectively put up a strong block and play disciplined defense.
“Their match stats are very similar to ours, so in order to win, we will have to make fewer unforced errors than them.”
The Tiger Cubs enter the tourney having won their final three matches, including a 3-2 decision on Saturday in the WIC crossover round in which they trailed 2-1 before coming back to win the final two sets.
Greencastle finished fifth in the WIC with the victory. Western Boone is the defending sectional champion.
North Putnam
First-year head coach LeeAnn Bryan thought her team didn’t win as many matches as it could have.
“Our team struggled with consistency,” she said. “The team saw a lot of different changes this year — from a couple of veteran players playing different positions, a couple of underclassmen stepping up and a new coaching staff.”
Bryan thought the players adapted “really well” to the changes.
“Our record does not represent the progress the girls have made mentally,” she said. “Some of the girls have worked really hard and have became great leaders because of it.”
The Cougars have two wins over South Putnam from the regular season, but if there’s any sport in which such history means very little it is volleyball.
“We are excited because we’ve already faced South Putnam twice,” Bryan said. “However, we understand that we have not been consistent this year and we know we really have to focus on our weaknesses like getting to places defensively.
The Cougars are the defending sectional champions, defeating Cloverdale 3-0 in the finals in a tourney where every match was a shutout.
South Putnam (2-28)
Rachelle Custis of the Eagles is also in the first year in charge of her program.
“We did not have the record we were hoping for this season, but we’re not going to let that discourage us going into sectionals,” she said. “We know that we have to be on top of our game in order to compete against the Lady Cougars on Thursday night.
“We have been focusing on coverage in the past week as we expect North Putnam to attack the ball at the net.”
Custis thinks the mental aspect of the game will be important for her players in the rematch.
“Our goal is to play with our hearts and push ourselves to play with full intensity from start to finish,” she said.
Cloverdale (7-18)
The Clovers lost 3-1 to Cascade last month and then by a 2-1 score on Oct. 8 in the Cascade Invitational.
“We are looking forward to the sectionals and are excited for the chance to play Cascade again,” coach Kathy Moore said. “Winning the last two matches [over Southmont and South Putnam] has been a great confidence builder for us.”