Greencastle falls to No. 10 ranked Cadets

Thursday, October 7, 2010
Greencastle junior Kandice Bennett readies to send a spike to a waiting Cadet squad in Wednesday's match.

GREENCASTLE -- One night before meeting South Putnam in the "Attack for the Cure" cancer benefit match, Greencastle had to host class 2A No. 10 ranked Cascade at McAnally Center.

In the first set, Greencastle managed to grab a 7-5 lead before Cascade moved out of neutral and brushed aside the Tiger Cubs in three sets, 9-25, 8-25 and 14-25.

The contest has all the makings of a rough night for the hosts even as the visitors had trouble motivating themselves. Early miscues presented Greencastle with a slender lead as the Cadets were sluggish out of the gates.

Eventually, Cascade began to piece their potent attack back together and behind the serving game of Bridget Smith, Brandyce Sallee and Brittany Burdge pummeled the Tiger Cubs.

The 7-5 lead the Tiger Cubs held quickly disappeared and was never to be seen again. As the first set went on the fight was seemingly drained out of the Tiger Cubs to the point that by midway through the second set, several bench players began to see large chunks of action on the court.

Neither the second or third sets went much better for the hosts as Cascade cruised along, showing the home crowd glimpses of why they had been in the top 10 rankings most of the year.

In set number three, several of the reserve players, led by sophomore starter Rayleigh Amis, put up a fair bit of resistance against Cascade. Though they fell in time, it was a sign of what head coach Liz Spencer had been looking for from her squad.

"We walked through a different offense 20 minutes before the game and I'd knew there'd be confusion and that kind of stuff. But what I wanted to see was the young kids that keep improving and improving and it's only fair to give them a chance to show what they can do at the varsity level," Spencer said.

"I think it's something that we can work with, what we did in the second and third game. Cascade's a solid ball team but we have things to keep working on."

Even with Cascade the night before the Attack for the Cure match with South Putnam, the highlight of the week was Thursday night's game, one that was organized for the first time last year and has had a profound effect within Putnam County, something not lost on Spencer.

"Coach [Trish] Lowe got it started last year and they did a phenomenal job with fundraising and decorating and just did a really awesome job honoring the people that we work with, that the kids know," Spencer said. "I think that's the one thing the seniors wanted to make sure that we continued -- Attack for the Cure. It was important.

"So many of our lives have been affected one way or the other. People we know or family have been affected with this disease. It's important to all of us to know that we're fundraising but that all the money stays in Putnam County," Spencer continued.

"I think that is something that's truly important that, all the money that goes out, all the money raised in this game stays in our county. I think that's a reason our kids are excited, knowing that they're helping people here in this area," Spencer added.

Greencastle won last year's contest in five sets. Spencer is hoping for a repeat of events.

"They all had a good time. They're looking forward to playing a county rival. I just want to see us stay competitive and fight for each point and not quit. There's things that I know we can get better on. But again there's a lot of freshmen and sophomores playing and they're gaining valuable experience," Spencer said.

"I just hope that at some point and time you'd like to think that they're going to play a good game. And that game is still out there for us. We'll serve well, pass well, hit well. At some point and time we need to put it all together."

At Greencastle

Cascade 25 25 25

Greencastle 9 5 14

Next Match-- Greencastle travels to South Putnam for the "Attack for the Cure" cancer benefit JV/Varsity double header starting at 6 p.m. today.