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VOLLEYBALL PREVIEWS: Greencastle looks to fend off North Putnam, South Putnam, Cloverdale as county champs while all look to take sectional title at Southmont
Greencastle
An 0-7 start didn’t clue anyone in on what the Tiger Cubs would go on to accomplish in the 2022 season.
Greencastle wouldn’t quite manage a winning season but a Putnam County Volleyball Tournament title and an appearance in the Greencastle Sectional final would make the previous campaign well worth it in the eyes of those wearing purple.
Tiger Cub head coach Denise Meyer, who was thrust into the role days before the previous season, said the girls had to adjust to McAnally Center’s construction timeline but made the most of things to prepare for the season.
“We have had to deal with McAnally being in its state of flux of construction,” Meyer said. “We worked out at the middle school pretty much all of July and were able to practice twice a day the first couple of days, getting a lot done and conditioning our bodies to play the five-set game, which varsity volleyball can go up to.
“We’re building a lot, trying to find the balance of conditioning, skills and putting it all together. We’re away for the first games, so that gives McAnally more time to get finished.”
The Tiger Cubs graduated three seniors, including Putnam County Player of the Year Caroline Gooch, as well as setter Olivia Richardville and front row member Kiersten Clark.
Returning for Greencastle includes seniors Maddie Landry, Kylee Owens, Madi Plew and Lindy Watson, juniors Kyra Bandy, Kaitlin Welker and Hayley Owens and sophomores Allie Landry, Mackenize Crevison, Meilani York, Ellie Knuth, Anna Cox and Keely Amis.
Allie Landry split time with Richardville as a setter and while the sophomore might run the offense solo at some point, Meyer said early on there would still be a two-setter rotation on the floor.
“We’re doing a bit of both,” Meyer said. “We’re running two setters between Kailtin and Allie, with the flexibility to turn it into a one-setter offense, though she’ll be hitting on the right side when she’s not setting.
“That would be down the road as right now, we’re trying to build the offense and get it firing. We’re working both but focusing on our two-setter look.”
Filling in the roles of Clark and Gooch on opposite sides would be filled by several players, some coming out of solely back row positions to become all-round players according to Meyer.
“In our senior class, we have Lindy, an outside hitter, Maddie, who was a back row defender for us and worked hard to be able to be a six-rotation player, also can hit outside, as well as Keely,” Meyer said. “Ellie is adding some outside hitting to build up some depth along with her back row work.
“Lindy mostly has played JV, including last year, and has worked hard all summer to try and be up where she wants to be in her senior year. Madi and Kylee are both in the middle as seniors, along with Mackenzie, the three of them triangulating in the middle and right side positions.
“It’s nice to have some of the significant pieces of the offense to fill some of the holes are seniors left for us,” Meyer added. “Caroline from the right side is a hard spot to step into, the same with Kristin on the outside and we miss both of them.”
With some players moving to more all-round positions, Meyer said some of those straddling the line between JV and varsity would help in the rotation along the backline.
“With Ellie, Meilani, Kyra and Hayley we have some options in the back row,” Meyer noted. “Kyra and Hayley will still be in that dual role of helping the JV, as we have a lot of freshmen, as will Anna Cox, another who will help give the JV a foundation while also being a rotation player for the varsity.”
While not needing the incoming freshmen group to jump right into the varsity squad, Meyer was still pleased with how the group was working to adapt to high school play.
“I could not be happier with the group of freshmen that have come up,” Meyer said. “They embraced summer workouts and came in ready to work.
“They understand there’s a large margin of growth to make and they keep coming back. There are seven freshmen and the nice part is, our assistant coaches, Maggie Meyer, Bailey Jones and Kotei Aoki, are consistent, too, and we’re learning each other’s pushes and pulls. That’s helped bring those freshmen along, too.”
As reigning county champions and sectional finalists, Meyer said the girls would have a tougher time repeating both accomplishments but said the girls understood some of the difficulties they had to fend off last season and had ideas of how to accomplish even more in the 2023 season.
“It’s going to be tough,” Meyer said. “The competition in the county is very good.
“North Putnam was favored last year, has eight seniors back and is hungry for it. We can’t take any wins for granted be mentally tough and work on the discipline of the mental game so that we’re not only ready to hang on to that title but being prepared to win any time we step on the court.
“All four schools want to vie for that title and a sectional title,” Meyer added. “We have to fight and scrap to get better to compete. As a coaching staff, we’re focusing on the mental part of things as the girls felt empty after going 3-0 and 0-3 on the day of the sectional final.
“We want to contend for titles and if those are things that are in sight, then the girls and the coaching staff have to work together to make that happen. We want to start the season in a growth mindset so its not about October now but one game each time while keeping their eyes forward on what they want down the road.”
South Putnam
After losing dominant frontcourt duo Marietta McGinnis and Brie Miller, the Eagles had an up-and-down 2022 season, finishing 12-16 overall and graduated four seniors off of the team.
A younger South Putnam team will look to replace a key frontline departure while filling holes along the backline as head coach Ellen Houser said the team was figuring out how it wanted to take the attack to opponents in the 2023 season.
“Things have been going very well,” Houser said about the first weeks of practice. “The girls get along culturally very well and that’s 90 percent of building a team, to have a good, healthy team culture.
“We’ve been working on offense a lot as, during the summer, I was unsure of what I was going to go with. We have several returning players but also have a lot of JV players moving up with four seniors graduating, so we’re trying to find the best lineup possible through trial and error. These first two weeks, we’ve be able to home in on what we’re going to within the actual season.”
Houser said beyond the ability of the departed seniors, the leadership of the quartet was equally as valuable and was possibly the more difficult to replace.
“We miss the leadership role that Emmy Jeter had as she was a very vocal leader for us,” Houser said. “Two other seniors, Talyor (Hartley) and Kelsey (Custis), were setters and on-court, they were leaders as they both ran the offense.
“We had strong back row play from Laney (Nolley) and Kelsey, which we will miss, but for me the most noticeable absence has been having a vocal leader, though I have confidence the girls will fill that void.”
South Putnam has three seniors in Payton Freeman, Olivia Woolums and Joscelyn Pilcher with four juniors back in Danae Cline, Chlara Pistelli, Madison Gardner and Lilly Emerich, along with the addition of Chloe Storm, along sophomores Lilah Holderfield and Taylor Wagoner on the varsity roster.
Other underclassmen on the roster include sophomores Elizabeth Dobson, Josey Helton, Layla Mullin and LauraJayne Switzer and freshmen Payton Buddle, Adrie Burge, Drew Gardner, Tessa Mullin, Lyla Rissler and Mia Wells.
“We have five returning varsity players with three being seniors in Payton, Olivia and Joscelyn,” Houser said. “We are really looking to them to fill the void of vocal leaders with two of them playing up front.
“Chlara will be our setter while Danae is our best back row passer. Madison got some time late in the year filling in for an injury and I feel confident she’ll jump in well this year. Taylor is a sophomore that played JV last year who is a middle blocker that has some outside hitting experience and has really come along this year, so we’re excited to see where her talent takes her.
“Lilah will help to fill the back row void and is a good player to bring up as she has experience in all parts of the court at the JV level,” Houser added. “We have a couple of juniors in Lilly, who has played all around and dressed for varsity at times, hitting for us while Chloe has skill as a back row passer. We have a pretty deep bench and fill pretty good about it.”
While several players were ready to step into the varsity lineup full time, Houser said the team was still trying to find the right balance with several players having interchangeable skillsets on the floor.
“We’ve been trying to decide on what direction we want to go,” Houser said. “Chlara has the skill and confidence to step up into the setter role and we feel good about her in that position.
“We’ve played around with the front and back rows, have settled on a lineup and feel good about this group of the last two weeks. We may come down to a best lineup but I don’t think there are any bad lineups as we have so many interchangeable players.”
Woolums returns as the team’s leading hitter by a solid margin, nearly doubling the next two highest returning attackers in Pilcher and Freeman during the 2022 season.
Houser said many teams would remember Woolums from a year ago and said Pistelli’s reading of the game would be important in order to keep teams honest on defense.
“It’s definitely something we’ve discussed,” Houser said about teams keying on Woolums. “Teams prepare for us as we do for them and in certain games, we have to prepare for that.
“We’ve increased our hitting depth so we don’t rely on one hitter all the time and it’s something we’ve talked to Chlara about as the person running the offense. She’ll need to be aware of what other teams are doing defensively. We also want to bring a larger variety of hitting to teams so we’re not as easy to defend.”
Houser said the team was eager to get started, especially being able to play at the high school again after construction kept the team at Central Elementary during the 2022 season, believing the return to normalcy would help the team in its bid to get back above .500 this year.
“I feel optimistic this can be a winning season for us,” Houser said. “I don’t know if we have as many standout players but that can be a benefit for a team if they’re more scrappy and work together as a team.
“It’s also phenomenal to be at home all the time. Last year it was necessary to be at the elementary throughout the year but we’ll be in the high school all the time this year. You don’t realize what a loss that is until you experience it.
“Things like the locker room have been worth the wait and we’re excited for the season to begin.”
North Putnam
The Cougars were in a state of flux in the 2022 season, trying to find their way after a senior-laden 2021 squad graduated, leaving the team only one senior and several untested players to work with in the 2022 campaign.
North Putnam managed a 15-12 record to end the year but finished on a four-game skid, including getting swept out of sectional play by Greencastle.
Now with eight seniors on the squad, head coach Jenny Heron said there had been a sea change in the way the team was approaching the 2023 season.
“Practices have been different at the start of this year,” Heron said. “The girls have come in more motivated and ready to get after it.
“They came in last year unsure of expectations and the dynamics after having five seniors graduate but this year there’s been a boost in their confidence from summer to the official practices.”
The Cougar seniors include Ashleigh Riley, Phoebe Fouts, Lexi Daigle, Addi Osburn, Layci Reed, Callee Riggle, Alexa Stiff and Saylor Carrell, a group Heron said had taken last year’s finish to heart.
“It’s awesome to have eight seniors,” Heron noted. “Leadership-wise it’s great to have their help with the younger ones.
“Everyone has a different purpose on the court and they show up, work hard and get better every day. We have different expectations for this year, part of which is to be in the right place physically and mentally at the end of the season.”
Along with the seniors on the squad are junior Mackenzie Mason and sophomores Melanie Davies, Hailee Daigle, Jenna Day, Bailee Pride, Morgan Berry and Addie Jones.
With so many new faces in the lineup last season, Heron said the team needed to go through the growing pains of 2022 in order to find out what to fix ahead of this season, particularly on the defensive end.
“Last year we weren’t where we were supposed to be defensively,” Heron said. “We weren’t set off first contact, something we emphasized in the summers.
“We’ve definitely seen more confidence defensively, getting to places quicker and seeing improved serve-receive.”
Riley led the attack last season with Carrell and Stiff adding more than 100 kills each and Fouts just behind on 97.
Heron said a few changes would see some added attackers up front with Fouts looking to make a bigger impact this season.
“Phoebe has been working hard in the offense and is a big mid for us this year,” Heron said. “She has improved her offense and defense and has a great attitude in practice.
“Mackenzie is our only junior and has a lot of energy; I don’t think I’ve ever seen her tired once at practice and it’s awesome to see her energy. We will also use Hailee and Melanie in the front row.”
With more options up front, Heron said Stiff would move in the back row primarily after a strong summer of improvement while also believing setter Lexi Daigle would help evolve the offense further.
“Alexa has made a lot of improvement in the back row,” Herron said. “She played in the front row and all-around last year and this year, she’ll be played more in the back row.
“Jenna is another player comfortable in the back row, having played it in JV last year, and has improved a lot while Bailee has been working hard in the front row. We have 15 girls rostered on the varsity, not all of whom will be strictly playing varsity, but they all have a role, energy or something that can bring value to the team.”
“Lexi had done a great job of leading the hitters,” Heron said. “Setters have a lot on their shoulders and have to have strong shoulders to take constructive criticism with the position.
“She has fixed a lot of what she lacked last year and her mentality has changed a lot. We might also have Hailee setting a little bit this season.”
Whether it was the combination of being beaten by Greencastle at the Putnam County Volleyball Tournament and in sectional play, the slide at the end of the season or the additional experience of a year of varsity volleyball, Heron said the team as a whole had a different level of confidence in them and was eager to see how that transferred into the regular season.
“I don’t know what happened but I do know our seniors are not scared of anyone,” Heron said. “We went to LaPorte this summer, hitting with schools like Valparaiso and New Prairie, hanging with teams like that and recognizing the confidence they girls have with a year of varsity experience.
“Last year, we ended the season 0-4, 0-12 in games, and we’ve definitely looked at what happened during that time. I do know that our highs were very high and our lows were very low, so we didn’t have a lot of consistency on that end.
“We’ve responded very well this summer and the past two weeks have looked even better than the summer,” Heron added. “I’m not sure what happened to their mentality but as a coach, it’s been great to see.”
Cloverdale
Progress was slow going for the Clovers in 2022 as the team got its first win in August, added a second in late September and picked up a third in August as Cloverdale went 3-20 after a winless 2021 season.
Under head coach Paige Glassburn for a second season, the Clovers will be a bit understaffed but will be hoping to continue the upward trend in the 2023 season.
“We’re lacking in numbers this year as we have 16 total and we have a very young team this year,” Glassburn said. “We have a lot of ninth-and 10th-graders and no juniors; we have three pretty strong seniors this year and some sophomores that played on varsity who are doing really well this year.”
Cloverdale has three seniors in Yasmin Sorter, Emily Mann and Keelie Price with sophomores Paisley Meyerrose, Callee Smith, Jacie Neese and Emma Wynia, along with freshmen Lexi Mann, Gracie Lee and Meghan Halloran listed for the varsity roster to start the season.
“Our varsity looks pretty good,” Glassburn said. “We do have a few freshmen dressing with us and though they’re probably not going to get out there early on, we’re looking at them as rotation players.
“Jacie is our setter this year and has made a complete transformation as a player. She’s really stepped up and we have several others have been working hard and are going to play all the way around.”
Given the gap between seniors and the rest of the squad, Glassburn said the upperclass trio was doing well to get the rest of the team involved and help them along through the season.
“Emily, Keelie and Yasmin are doing amazing leading these underclassmen,” Glassburn said. “They are very vocal and inclusive of all the girls.
“Despite there being an age gap between the seniors and the underclassmen, all three have been helpful to them and have taken them under their wings. They explain things to the younger girls and those girls are not taking anything personal. They’re meshing all across the court.”
Much of the back row production was lost to graduation with Glassburn noting several players were picking up the slack.
“Passing wise, Yasmin is an all-rounder who has gotten better and better in the back,” Glassburn said. “The same applies to Emma, who has really stepped up this year. She’s also grown a little bit, so we have her down as an outside hitter who can also do some passing so we’ll see what the season brings her.
“Paisley can go anywhere as she knows all the positions, though she isn’t a starter yet, but we’ll see where we want her to be. Callee has helped us quite a bit in the middle as well.
“Though we tried some things in the summer, we’ve kept our rotations from before as that’s what the girls know,” Glassburn added.
Even with only three wins in 2022, Glassburn there were several matches where Cloverdale had a chance of either pulling out a win or sending the match the distance.
Glassburn added the girls understood they couldn’t simply wait for the other team to hand those chances to them and had to be more active in order to pick up additional wins this year.
“Last year, we had a lot of close games, games we could have won but didn’t get,” Glassburn said. “The upperclassmen remember that they have to after those wins in order to pull them out.
“We haven’t seen a team where we don’t have numbers like this but the girls have done well playing around those we have. There are understanding how those around them play and I feel these girls will do really well this year.”