NEW PALESTINE — Shortly after a failed Greenfield-Central kill attempt landed out of bounds to end Thursday night’s rivalry match, the victorious New Palestine Dragons let out a collective, celebratory cheer on the court.
The fiery student section also joined in before the host Dragons jogged over and gave every fan in the front row high-fives.
The Dragons’ 3-0 sweep at home against the Cougars marked their sixth win of the season and seventh match overall, but it seemed larger as they bested their Hancock County foes 25-17, 25-17, 25-16.
“It’s feels pretty good. You get a rush,” New Palestine freshman Lauren Wilson said. “Winning is awesome. It’s my favorite thing, so I really just want to go out on the court and get the win. We really click automatically out there.”
During their Hoosier Heritage Conference opener, the Dragons were on fire, led by junior Reagan Kleiman’s team-high 10 kills, a combined 13 aces and 45 digs.
The Dragons kicked off the 2021 campaign a perfect 3-0 prior to a 3-2 loss at Hamilton Heights last week Wednesday. After sweeping Whiteland, 3-0, at home last Thursday, and Warren Central, 3-0, last night, New Palestine put together their second three-game streak in shutout fashion.
“They were amped to play (Greenfield-Central), and they got the W. Hopefully, that gives us a wave going into the next couple of weeks,” New Palestine assistant coach Taylor Lawson said.
The Dragons’ energy led to a wire-to-wire run in the first set behind a strong showing from junior setter Isabella Gizzi, who finished with five kills and a plethora of assists.
New Palestine (6-1, 1-0 HHC) recorded 32 kills overall against the short-handed Cougars (2-5, 0-2 HHC).
Dragons’ Jada Hausz had five kills, Wilson finished with six, Rachel Burke added one and Nyla Lewis hammer down three.
Greenfield-Central struggled to defend against the onslaught as injuries, illness and the uncontrollable hamstrung their rotations.
“Our whole back row is out,” Greenfield-Central head coach Ron Heck said. “We didn’t really know what to expect coming into tonight, and I think the young kids did really well. Again, the JV kids that we had to pull up.”
Freshmen Kynsey Hasty and Makenna Rankins were called up to fill in and they showed their gritty potential. Rankins tied fellow freshman Rilee Roland with eight digs.
The Cougars ran out to a 7-0 lead to start the second set with two key blocks by Mya Grigsby, who recorded four total.
However, a 6-0 rally by the Dragons tightened the set, which showcased three ties and one lead change powered by a decisive 9-0 New Palestine run.
Dragons’ McKaylah Flagle capped the come-from-behind second-set win with an ace.
Grigsby had four kills for the Cougars, and Roland supplied six, while senior setter Morgan Hornady had seven assists.
The Dragons’ defense limited the Cougars to seven kills in the first set, two in the second and four in the third.
“The game starts with the pass, and if we don’t pass we’re out of system. Every one of our opponents pretty much knows where we’re going to go, Mya Grigsby,” Heck said.
“She definitely carries the frustration and we tried to get the kids to take some of the pressure off of her. Until they can take some pressure off of her, meaning our middles and younger players, it’s going to be that way night in and night out. Our opponents are going to key in on Mya unfortunately.”
The Dragons focused on serving with four aces from Wilson and Trinity Oertel. Grace Myers fired five aces.
Myers, who reached the 1,000 career-digs milestone against Whiteland was honored prior to the match and continued to build on the total with 15 against Greenfield-Central.
Flagle hit the floor for eight, Oertel had five, Gizzi with eight and Honour Mallory recorded four.
“(Against Hamilton Heights) we were up 2-0 in that one, and we could not find the floor offensively. Our defense was impeccable that game. It was the best we played. They were huge, but we just couldn’t find our way around the block,” Lawson said.
“But, we learned from it. You’re going to have those. It was very frustrating, but we fought. It just wasn’t our night.”
On Thursday, the Dragons were in postseason form.
“They’ve been like that since the summer and we were working really hard with our hitters’ connection with the setter,” Lawson said. “The chemistry with Bella and the hitters right now is phenomenal. We have to keep that going for sure.”
For the Cougars, they host Cowan on Tuesday and HHC foe New Castle and county-rival Mt. Vernon not long after.
The Dragons travel to the Greenwood Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 11.
“We had seven graduate last year. Seven important kids and these kids came in and acted like they’ve been here the whole time, so I couldn’t ask for anything more of them from that aspect,” Lawson said.
