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Tiger Cubs, Eagles claim 3-2 volleyball victories
Greencastle recovers from 2-1 deficit for win
By Joey Bennett
Sports Editor
CLOVERDALE — In a matchup on Thursday of the Putnam County volleyball teams with the best records so far this season, Cloverdale jumped out to a 2-1 lead after three sets before Greencastle came back to win the final two sets and escape with a 3-2 win.
What was the big turnaround?
Greencastle coach Maggie Walters points to one aspect.
“We finally decided to hit the ball, and have an offense,” she said. “We tend to start late, and we did again.”
The first set went back and forth for several points, until Cloverdale took an 8-4 lead thanks to two straight points served by Justyce Monnett. The Clovers edged that lead up to 17-11 at one point before Greencastle cut it to 21-20.
Kenzie Stoltz then served the final four points to give the Clovers the first set win at 25-20.
The second set was also played evenly early, with Greencastle gaining the serve after tying the match at 9-9. Freshman Lilly Meyer then served four straight points for a 13-9 lead.
The Cubs maintained the lead the remainder of the set, with Jalyn Duff serving the final two points for the 25-18 win.
Cloverdale dominated the third set, leaping out to a 12-2 lead and increasing that advantage to 18-5. The Cubs never seriously challenged in that set, with Stoltz serving the final three points for the 25-11 win and a 2-1 Clover lead.
“I knew it would be competitive,” Cloverdale coach Traci Scott said. “I thought we would hold out a little longer than we did. We made too many easy mistakes when it was down to crunch time.”
Crunch time started in the fourth set, which also went back and forth. Greencastle gained the serve and a 10-8 lead after a sideout.
Ivy Wright then served four straight points, starting with an ace, to put the Cubs up 14-8. Cloverdale cut the gap to as little as 20-17, but Wright served three more points to break it back open and the Cubs finished with a 25-18 win to set up the deciding final set to 15 points.
Greencastle led 6-2 early, thanks to three straight service points from Allison Stevens, but the Clovers ran off seven straight points behind the serving of Hailey Thomas to go up 9-6.
Wright again was effective in the serve with four straight to put the Cubs up 12-10, and Greencastle was able to hold on to pull out the 15-12 win.
Jada Amis led Greencastle with 15 kills and five blocks, while Meyer had nine kills and 13 digs, Stevens had seven kills, Duff had 29 assists and Maggie Meyer 28 digs.
For Cloverdale, Tori Combs had 18 kills and 10 blocks, Stoltz had 10 kills and 22 digs, Thomas had 32 digs, Hannah Rady had 33 assists and Monnett had eight kills.
“I was happy with about everything we did,” Scott said. “We had some things to work on in practice to get ready for the county tourney.”
The two teams are paired in the first round of the Sept. 9 county tournament, being held this year at Cloverdale.
Those matches will be best of three, instead of best of five. Walters knows her team would have lost on Thursday if those were the rules in play.
“We knew this was going to be a tough battle,” she said. “You know when you’re going up against a great hitter like Combs that you’re probably going to go four or five sets.
“We will definitely have to make some adjustments for the county tourney,” she said.
Scott also has some changes in mind, but did not want to hint at what those are.
“We think we can come back strong against them, and hopefully when it’s most important,” she said. “I change the lineup quite often, depending upon who we’re playing. I made a couple of mistakes tonight — I changed it a couple of times and got nervous and changed it back.
“I still have a few things waiting to try,” she said. “We have one of our defensive specialists who his out, and she’ll be back for the county. Hopefully that will clean up some of the balls that hit the floor.”
Trailing 2-0, Eagles win three straight sets
By Johnathon Goode
For the Banner Graphic
A midseason county matchup took place on Thursday night on the volleyball grid as the South Putnam Eagles hosted the North Putnam Cougars.
It was a match of wild momentum swings, as the Eagles came back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 by set scores of 20-25, 22-25, 25-17, 25-20 and 15-11.
“It was really nerve racking,” Eagle coach Rachelle Custis said. “I’m very proud of the girls for not giving up.”
North Putnam had its momentum going early in the game as they went up 13-6 in the first set, but they had some help from the Eagles who committed seven attack errors. They also had three aces in that span.
Then the attack errors came back to hurt the Cougars as well as they committed five straight to bring the Eagles back within two.
After going back and forth for the next 20 points the Cougars finally ended the set when senior Raven Gant made a tip kill that fell to the ground just over the net. During that span Cougar sophomore Bradi Gierke had two kills and an ace.
South Putnam struggled once again at the start of the second set. They let the Cougars get out to a 12-4 lead when Gierke got her fourth kill in five points. They went down by as much as nine before committing two defensive errors and losing 25-22.
“We did a lot of things well,” Cougar coach Bonnie Osborn said. “We hit well and we moved over the floor well. Once we make a mistake we wear it on our faces and shoulders and it wears us down.”
There was a spark in the second set that helped set the Eagles up for a big run in the following sets. Freshman Chloe Custis rattled off five aces in seven attempts and help tie the set at 22. Defensive errors on digs and attacks plagued the Cougars.
The Eagles opened up the third set and took their largest lead to that point in the game at 9-4. They had five aces over that span and the Cougars had no control over the ball. Junior Caitlin Capps blasted a kill late and then an attacking error made it 23-16 before winning 25-17.
Many times teams will go up 2-0 and then lose a set, but rarely do they lose two in a row. The problem was that the momentum had shifted and the Eagles were ready to go in a back-and-forth fight. The teams traded points by ones and twos to the point where is was 13-12 Eagles at the midway point.
“These girls truly play with a lot of heart,” Custis said. “They may come off with a slow start, but one thing is for sure.
“It kind of gives them a little bit of drive to push themselves even further.”
Mini runs finally helped the Eagles extend their lead out to 22-17.
Gierke, who had 15 kills for the game, had yet to see any in the fourth set, but she came up big with three straight to help keep the Cougars in it at 23-20.
Capps recorded another kill and then an attack error by the Cougars ended the set.
South Putnam had done its job coming out of a deep hole and with momentum on its side, had a good chance in the fifth set. The Cougars could only get as close as two, partially because they kept committing errors, six in total.
One last push was all the Cougars had as junior Kenzie Young had three kills and helped pull the Cougars within two, but that was followed by a service and attack errors.
Grace Burdge answered for South Putnam with a kill and the Eagles only needed one game point as there was an attack error by Gierke to give the Eagles another win, 15-11.
In all there were 36 aces between both teams. The majority were serves that resulted in dig errors, but there were stretches in the second and third sets that there were strings of aces by the Eagles. The Cougar back row struggled to read the ball and it ended any chances they had.
“Sometimes we get a little flat-footed and struggle communicating,” Osborn said. “Communication is a big one. That’s something we will have to work on and get better at with practice.”
Custis led the Eagles with 20 points on the night with three aces, five kills and seven assists. Miranda Bieghler followed with 13 points with four aces, three kills and nine set assists.
Although Brianna Robinson only had two points, she really helped her team defensively with 15 digs.
The Eagles will have the week off until they travel to Owen Valley next Thursday. The Cougars will play next Wednesday when they host West Vigo.
Both games start at 7:30 p.m.