Northview continues roll through county teams with sweep of South Putnam

The Northview Knights showed the South Putnam Eagles why they are the Western Indiana Conference leader in volleyball on Thursday night at the Eagles Nest. The Knights relentlessly attacked the Eagles, who despite several valiant defense rallies fell 25-19, 25-8, 25-15.

Northview’s power on the front line, coupled with a solid back row, pulled away late in the first set, dominated the second and methodically put away South in the final.

The loss drops the Eagles to 6-11 overall and 2-6 in the WIC. Northview improved to 18-8 and a perfect 7-0 in the conference.

“(Northview) is really good. I was really happy with our play tonight. We did a lot of good things and played as well as we have in a while,” South Putnam head coach Ellen Houser said as she was obviously proud of her squad.

The Eagles and Knights battled evenly through the first half of the first set. Chlara Pistelli’s ace cut the Northview lead to 12-9, but the Knights began to methodically pull away, eventually boosting their lead to 22-14.

South Putnam managed to get within 22-17 before the Knights put it away with Karsyn Buck picking up a kill to end the first set at 25-19.

The second set was controlled by the Knights from the get-go. After going up 3-0, Northview spread the ball around continued to outscore the Eagles throughout the game. Audrey Lee of the Knights had five kills and two aces in the set while Keira Lucas closed the set with two strong points to established the final score of 25-8 and a 2-0 lead in the match.

“They are really strong up front, but they might be the best team we have played from the back row. I thought we handled them pretty well at times,” Houser said.

The third set was extremely competitive and entertaining. Northview was able to get an early lead as Lucas was getting opportunities at the net, but South’s resolve was tough and forced several long rallies and cut the early Knight lead to 11-9 on a Madison Gardner block.

Taylor Wagoner picked up a couple of points in the middle of the net for the Eagles while their defense forced Northview to play for extended rallies with multiple big saves and returns on the big front line of the Knights.

“Taylor has been working on her timing and it was good to see her have some success. Danae (Cline), wow! She was incredible on defense for us,” Houser said.

The Eagles travel to Riverton Parke on Saturday for their next match, while the Knights will travel for another WIC contest on Saturday, at Brown County.