Eagles come up short against Speedway

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

GREENCASTLE --When a volleyball team can't attack the net, it makes it hard to win a match and South Putnam found that out Tuesday night against Speedway.

The Eagles lost in three sets, 25-12, 25-17, 25-13.

"They caught us on our heels right away and we never fully got on the attack and you can't win games playing defense," SPHS coach Lindsey Blackman said. "You have to be able to attack them, so give props to Speedway.

"They had good hitters and a great setter. You can tell they had more experience by the way they ran their varied offense," Blackman added.

South Putnam couldn't get anything going in the first set, but in the second it looked like it was going to be a different story. After Speedway knotted the score at 2-all, the Eagles went on a 4-0 run thanks to three kills from Brooke Boetjer. South Putnam was able to build a 9-5 lead over the Plugs, but the lead was short lived.

Speedway battled back, making a 7-1 run, overcoming the Eagles' momentum and slowly finished South Putnam 25-17.

"At times we didn't put forth the effort we needed to," Blackman said. "There was a streak in the second set that I thought we found our groove when we made some hustle plays when we needed to, but it wasn't enough."

In the third set, South came out on fire, jumping out to a 7-3 lead, but couldn't hold on it. Speedway fired back with four straight points -- three of those were aces courtesy of Courtney Walton--then went on a 18-5 run with eight points coming the way of kills, four aces, and one point from a block.

"We tried to adjust to their hitters by bringing our back row closer because they were able to hit the ball down because they get up so high. But as soon as we brought them up, they hit it long," Blackman said. "They were just a really intelligent team. They hit the corners and lines and overall did a great job."

Boetjer led the team with seven kills and two blocks, while Emily Dabkowski had two kills and one ace. Rachel Egold and Brenly Bratcher had one kill each. Ashley Wombles had one ace.

South Putnam is now 4-3 on the season and is back in action Tuesday when it travels to Riverton Parke for a 6 p.m. match.

At South Putnam

Speedway -- 25 25 25

South Putnam -- 12 17 13

Next match -- South Putnam is now 4-3 on the season and is back in action Tuesday when it travels to Riverton Parke for a 6 p.m. match.