Cloverdale takes Cascade to four games at sectional Saturday

Monday, October 25, 2010
Cloverdale junior Mariah Oetken connects on a kill in the Clovers contest with South Putnam on Tuesday.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Cloverdale's girls' volleyball team saw its season come to an end Saturday morning after falling to Cascade in sectional play.

The Clovers wouldn't go quietly as they forced Cascade to expend a great deal of energy to claim a four set win by scores of 17-25, 12-25, 27-25 and 13-25.

The performance of the Clovers was admirable against a Cadets squad that had pummeled them in the regular season meeting back in August.

Cloverdale head coach Cathy Moore summed up her squad's efforts, knowing ahead of time what kind of struggle they were headed into.

"I told the kids, this is like David and Goliath. We're not expected to win. Cascade expects to win this whole tournament. The pressure was really on Cascade and not on us," Moore said.

"The first set was a lot better than what the score indicated. It was point for point. I thought the kids did a good job of hanging in there. We had three missed serves and three net calls and that's six points. I told the kids the team that makes the fewest mistakes is the team that's going to win."

Moore continued, "The second set, we kind of went to sleep. We started playing tip-ball with them and they just killed us in the second set at the net. Third set, I thought my kids did a great job. They started out strong, continued to play strong and it was point for point in the third set."

"We didn't give up and they found a way to win that one. We were 24-23 and Breegan served the ball over the net like she's supposed to but they ended up winning the point. We got the ball back and served two consecutive points and that was terrific

"I told the kids they've got to believe in themselves that they could do this. In the fourth set, Cascade turned it on. We had blocking errors and tried to play that tip game with them again and they're just a little bit better at it than we are," Moore noted.

The match was one that had its moments for the Clovers and their fans to be excited about, just not enough scoring.

"We didn't have the hard hits like we are used to having and they took us out of our gameplan of having good, hard hits. Bradanne Toney spent a lot of time in the back row and that hurts us when it happens," Moore added.

"Breegan Andersen played the heck out of the ball. She really played defense well, passed well. She was my big defensive person today and she was playing one-legged.

"She's got a foot injury and is playing in pain, but she's a senior, she wanted to play and she gave all she had. My hat's off to her. She's really been my passer and my go-to girl," Moore said in praise of the senior.

As the court began to fill with players for the other sectional match, Moore had time to wrap up the season in words.

"Overall, I thought they played pretty well. We had a great year and I'm proud of the kids. We went from three wins last year to 13 wins this year. It was a good improvement, a county championship and a lot of improvement.

"With our seniors, we had one injured and one quit, which left us with four seniors. Three of them were starters and one came off the bench so I thought they really did a nice job. They did everything I asked them to do. I wish them the best and I know it's hard for them to have their last game of their career but I'm proud of them," Moore said.

"I've got a lot of young kids coming back next year so I feel pretty good about the next two, three years. We've got good kids coming up and I was able to get our freshmen some playing time and there's nothing but good things coming down the road."

In the sectional championship, the host, Covenant Christian, defeated Cascade in four games. Covenant Christian won 25-22, 17-25, 25-20 and 25-23.

Covenant Christian will host Eastern Greene, who won sectional 45 over South Knox, Tuesday at 7 p.m. for the regional championship.

At Covenant Christian High School

IHSAA 2A Sectional #46

Cascade 25 25 25 25

Cloverdale 17 12 27 13

Cloverdale finishes the year with a record of 13-14, second place in the WCC (4-1) and is the 2010 Putnam County Tournament Champions.