By RICHIE HALL
FISHERS – The first-ever IHSAA boys volleyball sectionals are taking place this week around the state.
Three Hamilton County teams are among those making history by winning their first matches on Wednesday. At Sectional 8, Westfield and host Fishers both won in straight-set sweeps to advance to the Saturday morning semifinals.
The Shamrocks went first and won their match over Carmel 25-18, 25-21, 25-18.
“I thought we played well overall,” said Westfield coach Pat McAndrews. “We started a little slow with the first set.” McAndrews said his team “made some serving errors that slowed our momentum,” but the ‘Rocks settled in toward the end, and the coach said the second set “was much better, as well as the third.”
Carlo Huisden led Westfield’s offense with 14 kills and led the defense with 10 digs. C.J. Fox had 12 kills and two blocks. Nick Gerow put down six kills and had four blocks, while Graham France made three blocks. Graham Weddige dished out 22 assists and Evan Huhn handed out 13 assists.
Chase Thorpe, Jack Kovak, Will Lloyd and Eli Philistin-Lynch all had six kills for the Greyhounds. Griffin Holdcraft collected 10 digs, while Shepard Spidel provided 26 assists.
The Shamrocks are 20-8, while Carmel finished its season 13-12-1 with a young team.
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Westfield will play Fishers in the Saturday morning semifinals. The Tigers swept Hamilton Southeastern 25-16, 26-24, 25-14 in the second match of the evening Wednesday.
Fishers steadily built its lead in the first set, and a kill by Ethan Luenemann finished the set. The Tigers went up 11-2 in the second set before the Royals came back to within 13-10. Fishers went on another run to lead 17-10, then went up 22-15.
Southeastern came storming back, winning eight of the next nine points to tie the match at 23-23. The score was tied again at 24-24 before Fishers got the next two points to win the set.
The Royals led 7-5 in the third set, but Fishers took over after that. An ace from Aaron Pifer clinched the match.
“We took care of business when we had the opportunity,” said Tigers assistant coach Jordan Guler. “We passed well, we controlled the game for pretty much the entire match.”
Nate Fitzwater hit 16 kills and three aces and made six blocks. Nick Tomlinson put down 11 kills, while JT Guler dished out 42 assists. Fishers improved to 27-4 with the victory.
Brandon LeJeuen hit seven kills, while Cash Untersee had six kills. Sean Carmona served two aces for Southeastern, which finished its season 14-14.
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Over at the Pike sectional, University swept Cardinal Ritter 25-19, 25-21, 25-21 on Wednesday to advance to the Saturday morning semifinals.
The Trailblazers will play Brebeuf Jesuit at 10 a.m. Saturday in the first semifinal.
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