Tiger Cubs triumph in trip to Cloverdale

Friday, September 6, 2013
Greencastle senior Shelby Earl (27) rips a spike past Cloverdale junior Jessica Winders during the match on Thursday. (Banner Graphic/TRENT SCOTT)

CLOVERDALE -- The first night of matches between the four Putnam County volleyball squads saw Greencastle defend the Putnam County Pride it took to the road Thursday night.

Cloverdale was in need of a win to defend their WCC crown and looked to reclaim the paddle it lost to the Tiger Cubs back in May.

The hosts claimed a tight first set but a big rebound by Greencastle saw the visitors take a four-set victory over Cloverdale 23-25, 25-15, 25-18 and 25-17.

Cloverdale head coach Kathy Moore said that Greencastle was a much better team than they had seen in past seasons.

"They played well," Moore said. "Give their coaches a lot of credit. We dug up as much as we could. We've got to get rid of a few mental mistakes and service errors we didn't need to have.

"Greencastle was up for this one. They wanted to hang on to the paddle. They're a much improved team."

The first set was dominated by three major runs, with Cloverdale charging out of the gates to claim an early 11-5-lead.

Greencastle righted the ship after trailing 12-7, rattling off 10 straight points to take a five-point lead at 17-12, holding it until they needed four points to win ad 21-16.

CHS took the next six points to take the lead at 22-21 and settled into a brief back-and-forth trade of scoring, ending when Megan Helterbrand hammered a kill past two Tiger Club blockers to win the set 25-23.

Greencastle head coach Maggie Walters said that Cloverdale simply outfought the Tiger Cubs early on.

"Cloverdale went for every single ball," Walters said. "They never gave up and never got down. I think our girls were expecting them to roll over and they never did. They kept fighting."

The momentum of the match should have been with Cloverdale. Instead, Greencastle came out firing and put the Clovers in a 14-3 hole.

CHS pushed back briefly, closing the gap down to five at 16-11 but the Tiger Cubs were quick to slam the door shut with a comfortable 10-point win that evened the match at 1-1.

Moore said that her squad had a letdown in the second set.

"We changed the lineup around and it didn't work for us," Moore said. "There are times where we start a new set and we're not focused. The other team will run off five or six points on us and then we're playing catch-up."

Walters added that the Tiger Cubs zeroed in on the match, the points started to pour in.

"We made errors in the middle of the second set," Walters said. "When we stopped making errors, that's when we got our runs. They start getting excited, start getting big kills and they saw the other side get down."

Sets three and four had a similar feel for the two squads as both the Clovers and Tiger Cubs fought hard up the middle of set, only to see Greencastle the stronger finishing team.

Neither side was able to separate itself in the third set. Both teams held a brief three-point lead until GHS took the lead for good at 16-15.

Greencastle strung together a five-point rally, the largest of the set, in the closing stages to secure a 25-18 win.

At 16-15 in the fourth set, the Tiger Cubs again pulled away as the strength of Greencastle front line finally forced its way past the Clover defense to win the set 25-17 and the match three sets to one.

Quinci Miller led Greencastle with 22 kills, 19 digs, and 8 blocks with Olivia Divine adding 20 digs and 14 kills. Taylor Stoltey had 42 assists and 13 digs, while Delanie Stoltey chipped in 14 digs and Danielle Thomas had 10 digs.

Cloverdale's Lindsay Robson led the defense with 22 digs. Kimmy Winders added 13 digs and six points while Rebekah Jordan had 11 digs, seven points and five kills. Jessica Winders compiled 21 assists, 10 digs and eight points while Adrianna Patterson added eight kills and five points.

Moore said that the squad might be undersized compared to Greencastle but it would be up for the week ahead and the Putnam County Tournament next weekend.

"The kids played hard," Moore said. "They gave it everything they had. We're small and they hit it over the top of us. We're going to see a lot of that this year but that goes with the game.

"Bloomfield is scrappy like we are. Owen Valley is a big team. After that, we'll be looking to work on things before next weekend.

"We're looking forward to next Saturday," Moore added. "We drew Greencastle in the first round of Putnam County Tournament. We'll work to improve after the first two games next week and bring some new things into that game."

Walters said that while the squad was gaining confidence from raising their record above .500, letting up against North Montgomery and Tri-West next week would be a mistake before the county tournament.

"We've got to keep working hard at practice," Walters said. "They have to know that just because they've won a couple of games that they can slack off. We have to keep working hard every day at practice."



At Cloverdale
Greencastle.................23 25 25 25
Cloverdale...................25 15 18 17

Next Match: Greencastle (5-4) hosts North Montgomery next Wednesday. Cloverdale (2-5) hosts Bloomfield next Monday.

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