Mudsock week continued Thursday night with the Hamilton Southeastern and Fishers volleyball teams facing off in front of a large crowd at the Royals’ gym.
Southeastern took control at the beginning of the match, overcame a deficit in the second set and held a wire-to-wire lead in the third set, which all added up to a 25-13, 25-21, 25-20 victory over the Tigers. It was an impressive win, considering that Fishers is ranked No. 3 in Class 4A. The Royals are ranked No. 4 in 4A.
“First of all, the atmosphere here was a lot like a sectional, which is really cool when the community comes together and celebrates girls volleyball the way it does,” said Southeastern coach Jason Young. “There’s a lot of love for girls volleyball in this community.”
After storming through the first set, the Royals found themselves down 16-11 in the second set. The Tigers had made a big run, winning seven of nine points to take that lead. Leslie Groff made a net tip, then JaNyah Henderson and Lucy Kay put down kills.
Southeastern began to work its way back into the set, winning four straight points to tie it up at 19-19. Fishers held one more lead at 21-20, but HSE finished the set by winning five consecutive points. Lauren Harden finished it up with a kill.
The Royals rode that momentum at the beginning of the third set, quickly taking a 5-0 lead. Tiffany Snook, Brooke Elliott and Harden all hit kills, with Meghan Slaninka serving an ace. Southeastern stayed in front for the entire set, and had its largest lead at 15-7 after a successful block.
Fishers made one last push to get within 17-15 after Ava Vickers hit a kill, but Snook ended that with her own kill, then Emily Weber stepped up with a net tip and a successful block. Lovie Wallace hit a kill on match point.
Young said his team “came out in the first set really, really strong. And then I really liked in the second set how resilient we were. We came back from a deficit. And then the third set, just happened to close.”
Southeastern had a big-hitting night Tuesday in its five-set win over Yorktown, and that carried over into Thursday. Wallace and Harden both hit 10 kills, Avery Hobson put down nine kills, and Snook and Elliott both had five.
Snook and Jada Berg each served three aces. Weber dished out 14 assists and Macy Hinshaw handed out 13. Wallace made four blocks.
“Overall, I thought we played well,” said Young. The coach noted that it is still early in the season and there were some things his team needed to get better at. “We’ll continue to work on that,” he said.
For Fishers, Vickers led the hitting with eight kills and Henderson had six. Henderson was a force at the net with 4.5 blocks (four solo and one assist), while Vickers had 2.5 blocks (one solo, three assists). Carsen Plew and Samantha Perdue each had 12 digs and Margo Hernandez dished out 25 assists.
“I think a lot of the things we do well and have done well against really good teams like HSE, we did not bring those tonight,” said Fishers coach Steven Peek. “It’s an art, not a science, so we have to figure out why that’s happening. I think we’ve addressed that pretty well and are starting to make some strides in that. We just have to go in and have a good practice tomorrow.”
This was also a Hoosier Crossroads Conference match, and the victory put the Royals on top of the HCC standings at 3-0. Overall, HSE is 3-2 and hosts its own Southeastern Showcase on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Fishers is 2-1 in HCC play and 10-2 overall. The Tigers are off until next Thursday when they host Brownsburg in another conference match.
Up at Noblesville, Westfield played the Millers Thursday night in an HCC contest and left with a four-set victory, 25-19, 19-25, 25-23, 25-21.
Emma Dodson hit 11 kills for the Shamrocks, while Lucy Muntel put down nine kills. Kaylee Sutcliffe served four aces, Logan Mapes handed out 28 assists, Mallory Weber collected 21 digs and Dani Schade had six blocks.
“I think we played pretty well,” said Westfield coach Sandra Burks. “We were up and down, but I think tonight, one of the things that we did, we responded in key situations where we needed to respond. And I felt it was truly a team effort. We had different people go in and do different things at specific times and they did a good job rising to the occasion.
Ava Harris had 10 kills and 10 digs for Noblesville. Diana Cox made 16 digs and Riley Branch dished out 34 assists and served three aces.
The Shamrocks improved to 2-0 in conference play and 7-5 overall, and play at the Southeastern Showcase on Saturday. The Millers are 1-2 in the HCC and 3-5 overall, and host their own Invitational on Saturday.
Hamilton Heights picked up a big win over Western on Thursday, 25-9, 25-9, 25-16.
Kelsey Smith was strong in setting for the Huskies, while Jordan Fryman led the way in hitting.
Heights is 10-2 and hosts Noblesville on Tuesday.
Sheridan dropped a Hoosier Heartland Conference match to Carroll on Thursday, 25-8, 25-17, 25-4.
Lexi Lewin hit three kills for the Blackhawks, Jacquellynne Bates led the defense with 17 digs. Claudia Headlee had four digs and one ace, with Kendra Blankenship also serving an ace. Payton Warren collected four digs and dished out three assists. Kenzie Garner had five digs and two assists.
Sheridan plays at Tipton on Monday.