Athenian offense knocks down Cougars

The Crawfordsville Athenians traveled down the highway to North Putnam to match up in high school volleyball contest featuring two teams that have been playing well. Crawfordsville’s size, depth, and experience proved to be too much for the Cougars on Tuesday night at they defeated North 25-20, 25-16, 25-21 in a non-conference game. The Crawfordsville victory improved their record to 13-5, while the Cougars dropped to 10-7 for the season.

“Crawfordsville is definitely one talented team, they’ve got one big hitter and are really good,” North Putnam head coach Jenny Heron said.

That talent was on display early as the Athenians jumped out to quick 3-0 lead in the first set. North was able to rally as Ashleigh Riley found the range from the left side of the net. Three straight kills by the junior tied the score at 4-4 before Macy Bruton put Crawfordsville up to stay in the match with a pair of kills from her side of the night.

“Ashley has been swinging really well the last couple of weeks,” Heron said.

Crawfordsville slowly extended the lead to 17-11, but North would not go away. Phoebe Fouts sparked a comeback with pair of big kills in the middle and Cougars stayed within striking distance until late in the match. A couple of North errors combined with a big kill by Macy Bruton set up Brooklyn Mills to end the match with a kill of her own.

“We’ve got a strong offensive team and we also play good defense. You need that combo,” Crawfordsville head coach Kelly Johnson said.

Bruton led the way early in the second set for Crawfordsville. The senior had five of the first 12 points for the Athenians, but Alexa Stiff was matching her for North Putnam. The junior outside hitter was able to pickup five points, including a pair aces in the set to keep the Cougars close.

“Alexa Stiff has been getting more kills lately, we’ve got a lot of weapons if we can put it together,” Heron said.

The last half of the second set was dominated by Hallie Gayler. The senior middle hitter scored six of the final 12 points for Crawfordsville. She was able to do it in a variety of ways with kills, blocks and even a service ace. The tired Cougars made a couple of errors late and the final of the second set ended at 25-16 in Crawfordsville’s favor.

Hallie Gayler does a great job. We did a good job at the net. That along with our good defense will win you ballgames,” Johnson said.

Heron was happy with her team’s play for the most part as the set ended on a couple of errors, but the Cougars committed very few errors on the night.

“Our errors were limited tonight, but we stopped attacking at times,” Heron said.

Crawfordsville looked like it would just run away with the third set as it went on a 12-2 un highlighted by Bruton scoring from the net with power and finesse, serving well and playing all over the court. The senior sparked the Athenians to a 14-4 commanding lead.

“Macy is the most pure player, I’ve ever had the opportunity to coach, it’s just natural. She does a phenomenal job,” Johnson said.

North Putnam would not go away. Stiff and Riley went to work, but was supported by Kylie Rust putting pressure on the Athenians. The Clovers cut the lead to 20-18 forcing a Crawfordsville timeout.

“I didn’t like how we started playing with them and not being the aggressor, but overall, we had a good match,” Johnson said.

North would get no closer as Bruton would score the remainder of Crawfordsville’s points and take the third and final set by a score of 25-21.

“We have had times where we got down on ourselves, but tonight we did well and realized, oh shoot we are right there,” Heron said.

Crawfordsville, after playing four straight on the road, will be able to host North Montgomery on Thursday night in a Sagamore Conference match up.

“We’ve been a little tired, it’s been a long week,” Johnson said.

North Putnam plays Thursday as well as they will travel to Western Indiana Conference rival, Northview.