North Putnam pushes past West Vigo in four sets

BAINBRIDGE – The North Putnam Cougar volleyball set the tone early in a Western Indiana Conference match against the West Vigo Vikings. The Cougars dominated the first two sets of the match winning easily, then after dropping the third, rallied and put the nail in the coffin.

The 25-10, 25-12, 16-25, 25-19 victory improved the Cougars to 9-3 overall and still undefeated at 3-0 in the WIC. The loss dropped the Vikings to 2-7 and 1-5 in conference play.

The Cougars showed their versatility with the front line, dominating at times, while the service game was also key as the Cougars had 19 aces on the evening.

“Yea, we did (dominate) early in the first two sets. I thought we were really playing well,” North Putnam head coach Jenny Heron said.

North started with a quick 3-0 lead and though a few errors allowed the Vikings to tie the score at 4-4, an 11-1 run by the hosts, punctuated by a Phoebe Fouts kill, gave the Cougars a double-digit lead at 15-5.

The home team would cruise to a 25-10 victory as Alexa Stiff had a pair of aces later in the set and the constant pressure forced West Vigo into several errors.

If the first set was dominating, the second set was even more so, particularly early on.

Melanie Davies had a pair of points at the net in an early 7-1 run that set the tone. The Cougars did not let up as Fouts had a pair of kills following a vicious kill by Ashleigh Riley.

That kill gave the Cougars another big lead at 13-3 and the Vikings never stood a chance as Addi Osburn hit three-straight aces late in the match to finish with a 25-12 victory and 2-0 lead heading into the third set.

The Cougars were so dominating in the first two sets that the Vikings only could muster four earned points in those two sets. The Cougars’ defense and net play stifled any chance West Vigo encountered.

With Lexi Daigle playing the maestro role as the setter, North scored in a variety of ways.

“(Lexi) does such a great job out there. Not only knowing where her hitters are, but understanding the back row also,” Heron said her senior setter.

North seemed to be on its way to a sweep as Callee Riggle had a pair of consecutive aces to give the Cougars an 8-3 lead, but it was not to be.

West Vigo went on a 10-1 run to take a 13-9 lead that they would never relinquish. North struggled keeping its rhythm and the Vikings confidence grew as they were able to earn points at the net and take advantage of some Cougar errors.

West Vigo would close the third set with a 5-1 run and avoid the sweep, 25-16.

“We changed up some things in the second set and continued that in the third set. That kind of hurt us, but I wanted to see how we would respond,” Heron said.

North Putnam responded as a coach would like.

The Cougars methodically set up Riley and Saylor Carrell early to get a small lead at 9-7, but then a point by Daigle and a pair of kills by Carrell started another Cougar run.

Osburn had four aces to extend the lead to a comfortable 20-9 lead before a small run by the Vikings closed the gap to 22-17, but Riley and Carrell ended the match with a pair of points and a 25-19 victory.

“We lost it a little bit a couple of times, but I thought we responded really well,” Heron said.

The Cougars will be part of the field chasing the Paddle at the Putnam County Volleyball Tournament on Saturday, facing Greencastle in the second match at 10:30 a.m.