Edgewood hands Greencastle first WIC volleyball loss

Just looking at a scoreboard does not always tell someone how well or poorly a team has played.

The Edgewood Mustangs came into McAnally Center and defeated the Greencastle Tiger Cubs 25-13, 25-18, 25-13 for a 3-0 sweep in Western Indiana Conference volleyball action.

The tall, powerful Mustangs constantly kept the pressure on the Cubs from the net and the service line as, although they seemed to win easily, Greencastle battled and competed for almost every point on the night as the hosts fell to 9-9 on the season and 3-1 in conference games. The Mustangs improved to 15-3 and 4-1 in WIC.

“We didn’t play up to our potential but the scoreboard did not reflect how we played. Edgewood did a nice job of serving aggressively and keeping us on our toes defensively,” Greencastle coach Denise Meyer said.

The first set saw the teams battle closely to a 4-4 tie, but an 8-1 run by the big Mustangs that saw Jenna Abram reel off three-straight aces during the run, broke the game open at 12-5.

Edgewood’s Farmer sisters (Gracie and Makinzi) and Olivia Edgeman then went work at the net with several kills, taking a 23-10 lead, until Keely Amis stopped the run for a kill of her own as Greencastle scored four of the final six points, though that was not enough to prevent a 25-13 Mustang victory.

Although those final points for the Cubs did not mean much on the scoreboard it set the tone as Greencastle went from passive and seemingly intimidated to an energetic group that battled for every point.

“We were a little flat early. We were not aggressive to start out,” Meyer said.

Greencastle got off to a slow start in the second set as Bella May had a pair of early aces and several Tiger Cub errors led to an 8-3 deficit, but Greencastle rallied to cut the Edgewood lead to 12-9 as Makenzie Creviston had a big block.

The Cubs had the look of a team that belonged on the court with the Mustangs as they continued to battle at the net. Creviston picked up a couple more points on a block and a kill, but Edgewood was able to stretch the lead to 24-14.

The Mustangs could not put the game away easily. Amis had a soft kill, Allie Landry had a kill of her own, followed by an ace by Kaitlin Welker and a block by Maddie Plew that cut the deficit to 24-18 before Edgewood finished the set.

“I thought Makenzie and Maddie had some big blocks for us tonight and Keely Amis had some good swings from the side,” Meyer said as the Cubs went down 2-0.

Again, the Mustangs went up early and again the Cubs tried to come back. Allie Landry had a pair of kills to cut the lead to 9-5, but following a great back-and-forth rally with several great plays and digs by both teams, Makinzi Farmer picked up a kill and that sparked a 7-0 run by Edgewood.

The Cubs continued to battle but would never get closer than eight points of the Mustangs as Edgewood would finish with three-straight kills and win 25-13 to complete the sweep.

“We made some changes to our offense in the middle of the first set. We moved Allie (Landry) up to hit and brought in Kaitlin Welker. I thought it was positive; we adjusted and did some good things and the score did not really reflect what we were able to do,” Meyer said.

The schedule does not do the Tiger Cubs any favors as they will host conference leader and one of the best squads in the area, Northview, on Wednesday night.