NEW CASTLE — Greenfield-Central and Mt. Vernon, as expected, took care of business quickly in the first round of Tuesday’s Class 4A Sectional 9 volleyball match at New Castle’s Chrysler Fieldhouse.
The Cougars, as it did 12 days ago in a regular-season meeting, defeated Pendleton Heights 3-0 in the opening match of the tournament. The Marauders followed with some fast work of their own, also winning 3-0 against Anderson High School.
The wins make for a Saturday morning meeting between the Hoosier Heritage Conference and Hancock County rivals. First serve is scheduled for 10 a.m. Mt. Vernon won the regular season meeting 3-1.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryOn Tuesday, the Cougars (20-8) defeated the Arabians by set scores of 25-12, 25-15, 25-18.
Pendleton Heights, which has been playing without key players due to injury, including all-conference hitter Avery Ross, ends its season 20-9.
Greenfield-Central jumped out to a 19-3 lead in the first set. The Arabians battled back on the serve of sophomore libero Ramsey Gary, who finished the match with seven aces. Pendleton Heights scored seven straight points off her initial serve, cutting G-C’s opening set lead to 19-10. The Arabians also had a 6-0 run during a Gary second-set series.
“When we were up 19-3, I think our kids got complacent,” Greenfield-Central coach Ron Heck said. “Pendleton Heights is probably the best serving team in the conference. (Gary) is impossible to stop. She’s a good all-around player for them.”
With the offense having trouble getting in sync, the Cougars got much of their opening-match momentum on defense, led by a strong blocking attack from senior middles Molly Schwarzkopf and Kenley Carpenter.
Down 11-9 in the third set, G-C tied it with back-to-back blocks from Schwarzkopf and Emma Berty. Pendleton Heights followed with three straight errors. At 18-18, Schwarzkopf and Herrell combined for a block to give G-C the lead for good.
“In practice we really worked on staying in the right spot,” Schwarzkopf said. “Our back row has been communicating to us more letting us know if we’re in the right spot or not. I think the communication was key tonight between the front and the back row.”
The Cougars had 13 blocks for the match, Schwarzkopf was part of eight. Carpenter had three blocks. Brooke Herrell was part of two blocks and Berty had one.
Libero Rachel Campbell had 24 digs.
Ava Antic led the offense with 10 kills. Makayla Price had seven. Herrell recorded six.
The Cougars had their share of strong serving, too.
Price had three consecutive aces in the second set to give the Cougars an 8-6 lead. Later in the set, Schwarzkopf had a run of four consecutive aces to bump the margin to 13-7.
Mt. Vernon (21-4) wasn’t on the court long. It won by set scores 25-7, 25-5, 25-11.
Ranked No. 9 in the state and one of three highly-ranked teams in the tournament — No. 1 Yorktown and No. 4 New Castle, the defending Class 4A state champions are on the other side of the bracket — it wasn’t much of a surprise that the Marauders eased to a first-round win.
There was little game flow in Tuesday’s second match as the Marauders recorded 15 service aces in their win.
Delaney Bowser had six aces and Libby Gee-Weiler had four.
When the Indians were able to return the serve, the Marauders were on the attack. Senior Claire Ertel only played two sets but was able to get 10 kills. Playing in only one set, junior Tatum Fitzgerald had eight kills.
Setter Rylee Ugen had 25 assists and libero Abby Herman led the Marauders with 16 digs.
“One of things we talked about this week was not to make the unforced errors,” Mt. Vernon coach Eric Bulmahn said. “That was all we wanted to focus on tonight, our side. We have to get better on our side before we worry about the other team.
“I thought we did that. We had very few unforced errors.”
Anderson ends its season 4-18. The Marauders beat Anderson in last year’s tournament opener, 3-0.
The tournament resumes Thursday with two more quarterfinal matches. Yorktown (21-0) opens against Muncie Central (11-13) and New Castle (17-4) takes on Richmond (16-9).
Semifinals begin at 10 a.m., Saturday. The championship match is scheduled for 7 p.m.
