Eagles win Putnam County volleyball crown

South Putnam won the Putnam County volleyball championship on Saturday.

Contributed photo

In 1983, NBA superstar Moses Malone made a famous quote when predicting what the Philadelphia 76ers would do in the playoffs. He said, “Fo, Fo, Fo” -- referencing three straight four-game sweeps to take the NBA title. \

The Putnam County volleyball tournament could have used the phrase “two, two, two, two” on Saturday as all four matches only went two games with the South Putnam Eagles becoming the first Putnam County team to garner a title since 2011 other than the Greencastle Tiger Cubs.

The Eagles were able to dispatch the host Cloverdale Clovers in the opening semi-final match 25-18 and 25-9 before then closing out the North Putnam Cougars 25-19 and 25-10 in the championship contest to keep the Putnam County “Paddle” and take in the hardware for 2020.

For those of you who are math wizards that is a pretty dominating 100-56 point differential in the two matches, while the only close match of the day was the North Putnam-Greencastle semi-final. Those two teams were only separated by seven points in the two games, but most contests on the day were not that close.

South’s three seniors (Chloe Custis, Grace Burdge and Brionna Egold) echoed each other when talking about the Eagles winning the title.

All three referred to the four years of hard work and getting better each year with the word “amazing” typically being thrown around when discussing how they felt.

“Every year we worked up for this. Our freshman year we weren’t very good, but all of our hard work finally paid off this year,” senior Chloe Custis said. Grace Burdge echoed that sentiment with as she stated, “We have gotten better every year and for it to come together when it really matters is awesome,” Burdge said.

Brionna Egold answered back with “It is great to have grown from where we were to being county champs and to do it with these amazing teammates is great.”

Championship

The Eagles held off a determined North Putnam Cougar team in a close first game, then dominated the final game of the day for the championship.

The two teams were never separated by more than three points in the first game, until South went on a 9-1 run midway through the game. The Cougars led 15-12 until South used middle hitter Marietta McGinnis to its advantage with the junior scoring four points on kills during the run and adding another couple late to close out the first game.

“McGinnis is a really good middle hitter and they have power hitters and they played really well today,” North Putnam head coach Brandy Dickson said.

South closed out the first game in impressive fashion, but the real story was the second and final game. The Eagles turned a 2-1 deficit into a 16-2 lead with a 15-0 run. The Eagles used McGinnis at the front line and Custis serving to take control. Custis served 15 straight points including four aces during the run and the Eagles led 16-2 before the Cougars got back on the board. South was able to cruise from there into the county championship and celebrate their victory.

“It is so great that for these kids that we did this. They have worked so hard and showed so much drive and determination that they deserve this. They work hard every day and I am so proud of them,” South Putnam head coach Rachelle Custis said.

Consolation game

The consolation game certainly was an unfamiliar feeling for the Greencastle Tiger Cubs. The streak of eight straight county titles had come to an end, but the Cubs found a way to salvage another win as they took two straight from the host Cloverdale Clovers.

“We did a better job of spacing our offense and trusting each other than we did earlier in the day,” Greencastle head coach Maggie Walters said.

The Tiger Cubs took their frustration of not being in the championship game out on the Clovers early. They jumped out to a 6-0 lead and then on the strength of Lilly Meyer and Juliette Tomamichael increased the lead to 12-4 before Cloverdale was able to rally a little. The Clovers were able to rally and tie the game at 15-15, but a pair of Tomamichael kills and points from Anna Zellers boosted the lead back to 19-15 and the Cubs held on for the first win.

The second game showcased Meyer’s ability to score as the senior outside hitter scored six of Greencastle’s points in the game from both the service line and the front line. Greencastle slowly increased its lead throughout the game and finished with a 25-12 victory and a third-place finish.

“It certainly was a different feeling (not winning the championship), but we struggle at times with the pace of the game. We found our rhythm later in the day,” Walters said.

Cloverdale coach Jim Spencer's team left the tourney still in search of its first win, but with a better performance in his opinion.

"We made strides this week in our overall play as we played our two best games of the season," Spencer said. "We continue to get better each week."

Clovers were led in kills by Chloe Sprinkle and Ashlynn Basore. Basore led in digs and Bella Branneman paced the Clovers in assists.

Semi-Final Match 1

The host Cloverdale Clovers got steamrolled by the eventual champion South Putnam Eagles, 25-18 and 25-9. The Eagles slowly pulled away from the Clovers in the first game behind several points from Brionna Egold and intimidating scores from Grace Burdge. The senior Eagles led the way as they took game one.

Game number two was a rout from early on. The Eagles led 10-2 as they were able to take advantage of some Clover errors, while Custis scored with three aces and Burdge added three kills as the Eagles took a 13-4 advantage.

South’s front line of Brie Miller, Egold, Burdge, McGinnis and Hannah Teipen set the stage for South to finish off the Clovers 25-9 to advance to the championship.

“We played pretty well early. We have worked for this and our group was determined,” Custis said.

Semi-Final Match 2

The most competitive match of the day occurred in the second semi-final. North Putnam dethroned eight-time reigning champ Greencastle 25-21 and 25-22. The solid backline play of Kyla Willis combined with the Dickson sisters and Maddie Lawler scoring at the net gave the Cougars an opportunity to play in the finals for the second straight year.

North turned a 17-16 deficit into a 21-17 lead behind Willis nailing three aces and a pair of kills by Zoey Dickson. That turned the tide for the Cougars and they held on to win the first game 25-21.

“We struggled with our spacing and we also have some problems when the other team is playing fast. We sometimes don’t process quickly enough,” Walters said.

North was able to squeak out another victory in game two as Zoey Dickson had several kills as the Clovers built a 24-18 lead before holding off a late rally and garnering a spot in the finals with 25-22 victory.

“We really played well early in the day. Unfortunately, that didn’t carry over later,” Dickson said of the Cougars.

What's coming up

The day finished with the Eagles sitting with a gaudy 13-1 record on the season as the schedule heads into several Western Indiana Conference games. That record will be tested as they travel to WIC opponent Indian Creek on Tuesday.

The runner-up Cougars will put their 7-5 record on the line against a tough Crawfordsville team on Tuesday night.

Greencastle is now 6-6 on the season and will have to regroup quickly as they play again on Monday against conference foe, Edgewood down in Ellettsville.

The struggling Clovers are still winless at 0-14 but will try and pick up their first victory on Monday as they will travel to North Central of Farmersburg for a non-conference match up.