Cougars rally to reverse sweep Patriots

SPENCER — High school volleyball is a game of emotion, momentum, and skill. North Putnam added a dimension to that with resiliency as they came back from being down 2-0 on the road at Owen Valley to rally for 3-2 victory over the Patriots. The Cougars dropped the first two sets 26-24 and 25-22 before exerting their dominance and winning 25-13, 25-15 and then 15-12 to win their sixth straight contest. The Cougars overcame a plethora of errors in the first two sets to pick up the victory and improve to 7-2 overall and 1-0 in the Western Indiana Conference. Owen Valley fell to 0-4 and 0-1 in conference play.

The emotion and energy that the Cougars showed in the final three sets was a key and that was pleasing to head coach Jenny Heron. “We roster 15 girls and that is because our bench does a great job in the game. They kept us up and provided that energy,” Heron said.

The Cougars got off to good start and jumped out to an 8-4 early lead in the first set, but Owen Valley kept chipping away to take a 12-11 lead and then the teams battled back and forth with three or four lead changes with the Patriots scoring five of the last six points to get the 26-24 win. The host Patriots took advantage of 12 Cougar errors to take game one.

Game two saw the Patriots take an early lead and never relinquish that lead. The Cougars kept it close never allowing more than a four-point margin, but again nine North Putnam errors doomed them to fall behind two games to none as Owen Valley won that second set 25-22.

North established itself in the third set. The Cougars jumped out to quick 10-3 lead as Ashleigh Riley scored six of the first 10 Cougar points as they got a 10-point margin at 14-4 and never allowed the Patriots to get within single digits again in the game. North forced Owen Valley into several errors and then the Patriots struggled to serve late in the game and the Cougars finished with a 25-13 victory to cut the Patriot lead to 2-1 in games.

“We did not play very well early. We looked tired, but we came back,” Heron said.

Owen Valley came out in the fourth set and looked like it was going to run away with the set and put the entire match away. The Patriots scored the first five points before a timeout by the Cougars. North then began to reel in the Patriots. Riley and Phoebe Fouts began to dominate at the net and rallied to a 10-10 tie before kicking in the jets. North went on a 7-2 run with additional scoring from Baylor Carrell and Mack Mason. North finished the Patriots off at 25-15 to set up the deciding fifth and final set.

“We still did not play as well as we can later in the game, but we started to play like we are capable of and it is always good to get a win,” Heron said.

The two teams played a tight game until back-to-back kills by Riley and Fouts gave the Cougars a lead early that they would stretch to 9-5 on a couple of errors by the Patriots. The close final set was tied at 10-10, but a Carrell kill and an Addi Osburn ace provided a spark that spurred the Cougars to the final 15-12 margin and the victory.