By RICHIE HALL
INDIANAPOLIS – Take four senior volleyball players and add an aggressive mindset.
That usually results in victory, and it certainly did for Hamilton Heights on Tuesday evening.
The Huskies won a first-round Class 3A Sectional 27 match with host Bishop Chatard in three straight sets, 25-23, 25-19, 25-22. The victory moves Heights into the Saturday morning semi-finals, where it will play Shortridge.
Although it was a straight-set win, all three sets were close ones. The Huskies, in fact, trailed 8-2 in the first set before slowly working their way back into the match. A four-point run got Heights within 12-11; senior Lexi Hayden hit a kill along the way.
Heights got its first lead of the match at 16-15 in the first set. The Trojans won the next two points to hole a 17-16 advantage, but the Huskies got the next point. Then senior Jordan Fryman nailed back-to-back kills to put Heights ahead 19-17. The Huskies never trailed again in the set, which they won when Fryman put down another kill on set point.
That tone continued into the second set, which began with Heights senior Kelsey Smith hitting a kill. The set was tied at 1-1 then the Huskies won back-to-back points, the first of which was another kill by Smith.
The four seniors – Smith, Fryman, Hayden and Rose McKinley – have been an integral part of the Huskies’ success.
“With having four, they can all pull together,” said Heights coach Steve Ward. “If one’s having a bad game, they can pull the other one up.”
Ward called his senior group “a strong class. They’ve been playing with me since they were freshmen, and so it’s nice to have that in a tight game in secionals like this one,” he said.
“We work really well together,” said Smith. “We know a lot of stuff about each other.”
Some of the younger players were getting into the act as well, with sophomore Lauren Lewis hitting a kill to give the Huskies a 10-6 lead. Chatard would eventually come back to tie the set at 14-14, but Lewis blasted back-to-back kills to give Heights the lead for good. Hayden would hit back-to-back kills later in the set, and Fryman put down a kill on set point.
The Trojans led for a good portion of the third set, at one point going up 15-10. The Huskies came back to tie the set at 15-15, with Fryman making a block and a kill, and Smith serving an ace.
Chatard led for the last time at 18-17, but Heights went on a four-point run to lead 21-18. Lewis started the run with a kill, then Smith was successful in a net shot. There were several times in the match when Smith would make a spike during the Huskies’ second hit – in volleyball, a team can hit a ball three times before it must get it over the net.
“My job as a setter needs to be more than just setting the ball,” said Smith. She said that if she can go up and get the kill by surprising the other team, “then I will do everything I can to get that point so we can go to the next rotation and get another point.”
After that four-point run, Heights had the lead for good. The match finished with Hayden making a kill.
On Monday, the Huskies finished their regular season by beating Park Tudor in four sets, 21-25, 25-23, 25-20, 25-17. Smith led the setting, while Kennedy Cherry led the way in digs. After its sectional win, Heights improved to 17-8 for the season.
Sectional play at Bishop Chatard continues on Thursday with two more first-round games. Brebeuf Jesuit plays Heritage Christian at 5:30 p.m., follwed by Guerin Catholic taking on Christel House Academy at 7 p.m. The two winners play each other at 11:30 a.m. Saturday in the second semi-final, following the 10 a.m. first semi-final between Heights and Shortridge.