Friendly rivalry: Cougars get best of Royals in 3-0 sweep

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Greenfield-Central’s Morgan Hornaday(4) does a jump serve during their game against Eastern Hancock on August 29,2019. Rob Baker

CHARLOTTESVILLE — At the end of an evening of volleyball at Eastern Hancock High School, two county schools left with positive outlooks on what transpired in a matchup of nearby foes.

The Class 4A Greenfield-Central Cougars extended a winning streak to four matches, while the host Class 2A Royals came away with a good view of what can come in the future when they go back up against foes that are little more equal in enrollment size.

Greenfield-Central won the match 3-0, by set scores of 25-15, 25-15, 25-14.

The Cougars are 6-1 overall. Each of their last four wins have come by 3-0 scores. This was also their third match in as many nights. They are coming off wins Tuesday and Wednesday against Connersville and Richmond, a possible sectional opponent, respectively.

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Eastern Hancock dropped to 2-8.

While a little over 10 miles may be the difference in location, Greenfield-Central (1,453) is over three and one-half times the size of Eastern Hancock (394) in enrollment.

The difference in school size doesn’t matter to Eastern Hancock coach Cory Rainbolt. She is a Greenfield-Central grad and former player in the Cougars’ program. Thursday’s match was a chance to see a lot of friends and see how her team measures up against a defending Class 4A sectional champion.

“It’s a fun game and I look forward to this game every year,” Rainbolt, a 1994 Greenfield-Central grad, said. “I enjoy this game and I’m super-excited for (coach Ron Heck) and his team. I wish them the best.”

The Royals battled close with the Cougars early in the first two sets. There were five ties in the opener before Greenfield-Central went on a 10-1 run to take a comfortable 15-6 lead.

In the second, there were six ties, the last at 8-8, when Greenfield-Central scored four straight. Eastern made a run later to get within one, 13-12, aided by a pair of service aces from Sydni Bednarski, but the Cougars pulled away again. This time they scored 12 of the set’s final 15 points.

In both Greenfield-Central runs, the Cougars got breathing room with junior Ava Antic serving. In the first set, Antic got the ball with her team up 9-6. When Eastern Hancock was able to force a side-out, it was 15-7.

In the second set, Antic got the ball with her team down 8-7. When serving returned to the Royals, the Cougars had taken the lead and stretched it to 12-9.

“When Ava is back serving — and Makayla Price, too — when those two get in a rhythm you don’t want to be on the receiving end of their serves,” Heck said. “(Ava) got in a rhythm and the rest of the girls feed off of that.”

“We have serve receive issues that we’ve got to get figured out,” Rainbolt said. “We know it’s an issue and it has been one of our key points (in practice). We’re getting lots of experience (working on it) so in the future we’ll be better equipped.”

Greenfield-Central led from the get-go in the final set, quickly jumping out to a 10-2 lead.

Heck was also pleased with how his setters, Morgan Hornaday and Ali Knecht, distributed to hitters.

The Cougars have been working on doing a better job of getting the ball to junior middle hitters Molly Schwarzkopf, Olivia Ellis and Kenley Carpenter to try to even out the attack that often goes through outside hitters Antic and Brooke Herrell.

On Thursday, of 31 kills from hitters, 13 came from middles. Antic led in kills with 11, but Schwarzkopf was close behind with eight, including seven in the final two sets.

"We’ve been working on it every practice," Schwarzkopf said. "We’ve been working a lot on serve receive and being able to get the ball and put it away on the front row."

"We’ve had a balanced attack all three days," added Heck, including the wins over Connersville and Richmond.