NEW PALESTINE — Three to zero is a common theme right now at New Palestine.
For the third straight match, the Dragons won in straight sets, 3-0, after a win Wednesday at home against Guerin Catholic.
That brings their record to 3-0 to start the season. But Wednesday’s game wasn’t as one-sided as that scoreline may seem. The Dragons bested Guerin Catholic 25-16, 25-21, 25-21, but it was back and forth for much of the match.
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“I feel like we played well tonight,” New Palestine coach Kelli Whitaker said. “I thought we spread out our offense really well, we played with a lot of energy and grit. I feel like we played under pressure, too. In a couple of the sets they kind of had us on the ropes. That builds character. I was glad to see us come out on top of that.”
The first 15 points of the first set were back and forth, with the Dragons holding a tight 8-7 lead. New Palestine started to pull away, taking a 16-10 lead on the strength of three Kristen Dodd kills off assists from senior Sydney Robertson.
The Dragons (3-0) took set one, with Robertson compiling over a half dozen assists in the set and the team picking up four aces.
Guerin Catholic (1-2) stormed out to an early lead in the second set, going up 7-3 before a Dragons timeout. New Palestine rallied to tie things at 8-8, then jumped ahead to a 16-11 lead. Guerin pushed back for the rest of the set, tying the score several times before New Palestine was able to pull away.
The Dragons rode the momentum from finishing the second set strong and stormed ahead in the final set, maintaining a six- to seven-point lead. Once they got within a few points of match point, though, the Golden Eagles picked up the pressure, tightening the score before New Palestine was finally able to put the game away.
The hosts finished the game with six aces. Senior Audrey VanderWal led the way with three, Robertson had two and sophomore Reina Amones added one.
Robertson was all over the court, accounting for 30 of the Dragons’ 35 assists.
The beneficiary of many of those was Lauren Dodd, junior right side. She finished with eight kills, and they all seemed to come at crucial moments in the game.
“She had some kills that were just, like, fire,” Whitaker said of Lauren Dodd. “The whole bench, the whole gym just exploded. That was really nice to see.”
Senior Lydia Jones led New Palestine with 11 kills. Sophomore Kaelyn Armstrong finished with nine.
Rylie Sturgeon, senior libero, had 14 digs for the Dragons. Jones added 11, Robertson had five and Amones had three. Sophomore Jesi Hall found herself on the stat sheet in multiple places, with a dig, a solo block, five kills and an assist.
Whitaker said that she’s happy with the results so far this season and sees some things that need to be cleaned up, but for a team that lost several key pieces from last year’s regional run, she likes what she’s seeing from her team.
“We put in a lot of work and we are really trying to kind of re-identify ourselves in a sense, trying to be a more even team across the net,” Whitaker said. “Everybody is getting a piece of it. We’re spreading it out more. I feel like a lot of other teams may think that we aren’t going to be as strong or that we may be someone they can overlook, in a sense.
“I’ve told my girls from the very beginning that we’re going to surprise a lot of people.”