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Cubs win county volleyball crown sixth straight time
Greencastle gets revenge from Cloverdale for recent loss, continues streak
CLOVERDALE — Greencastle won the first set 25-23 in the Putnam County volleyball tourney finals on Saturday, before Cloverdale bounced back with a more decisive 25-13 win in the second set.
The Clovers jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the final set, only being played to 15 points, and led 13-11 needing just two more points to snap Greencastle’s county title string.
Greencastle junior Allison Stevens scored a key point on a block-kill, and then took over the serve. Stevens reeled off three straight points — the second one being an ace — as the Cubs pulled off an improbable comeback and won their sixth straight county championship.
Tiger Cub head coach Maggie Walters admits that the players were solely responsible for closing out the match strongly.
“The last couple of points, [assistant coach] Denise [Meyer] and I decided that they didn’t need us and they had to believe in each other,” Walters said. “And they did. Allison’s block at the end was huge, Mackenzie Woodall had a huge play in the back row that kept it alive. In the second set, those things didn’t happen at all.”
Greencastle’s win over the Clovers came a little more than a week after Cloverdale won a decisive victory at McAnally Center.
“I think it made a difference,” Walters said. “It always puts you at an advantage when you have lost to a team, and they think they can beat you again.
“We came out in the first set and played really well, and in the second set we played individually and fell apart as a team,” she added. “We pulled together really well in the third set.”
Cloverdale coach Jim Spencer, competing in his first county volleyball tournament in several years after taking over from injured Clover coach Sam Jones late last month, was pleased with his team’s performance.
“Greencastle controlled game one from the start and we worked extremely hard to tie the game late, but could not finish,” he said. “I thought we did a good job of making some adjustments during game one to get back into the game to carry some momentum forward into game two. We played extremely well in game two as Greencastle went through some struggles defensively and offensively and we won rather easily.”
Spencer credited Greencastle with a great recovery after his team got off to a strong start.
“We were able to pull ahead again and give ourselves a chance to close out the game late, but Greencastle was able to make the plays down the stretch to close out the game with the final four points.”
Greencastle defeated North Putnam 25-21 and 25-22 in the second semifinal match, after Cloverdale beat South Putnam 25-12, 25-10 in the first round.
Stevens had 12 kills on the day for Greencastle, while Macy Clark had 10, Ivy Wright had seven and Jada Amis had six.
Jalyn Duff ended with 24 assists, and Anna Zellers added eight assists. Defensively, Mckenzie Woodall led with 23 digs. Wright and Lilly Meyer both had 12 digs, and Duff added 10.
Spencer was very pleased with how his team opened the tourney.
“We were able to get off to a good start and played well during the entire match to move on to the championship game,” he said.
Against South, Kenzie Stoltz served 10 points while Kaya Daub and Hannah Rady each served seven.
Rady had 17 assists, while Stoltz had seven digs and Hailey Thomas added six. Combs had six kills and Kayla Perdue added four.
In the championship match, Daub, Stoltz and Thomas each had 11 digs.
Stoltz served nine points, while Rady had 28 assists. Combs led in kills with 15 and Stoltz added 11.
Spencer can point to one factor that his team needs to work on as the season passes its mid-point and sectional tourneys loom just four weeks away.
“This was a really tough loss for Cloverdale volleyball because we controlled our destiny but could not close out the game,” he said. “However, closing out volleyball games is a quality of good volleyball teams and we have to get more consistent and better at finishing games.
“I was really proud of our effort and intensity during the tournament.”
Walters has seen her team have its ups and downs all season, and hopes the county title can propel her team toward repeating its sectional championship of a year ago.
“We’ve had some big wins this year, but it always feels good to beat a county school,” Walters said. “They are a great team. Tori and Stoltz can put the ball away. It’s fun to watch them, but I feel we have eight players who can play volleyball and that’s huge for us.
