By RICHIE HALL
NOBLESVILLE – The Fishers volleyball team’s season came to a close on Saturday when the Tigers fell to McCutcheon in the championship match of the Class 4A Noblesville regional.
The Mavericks won in straight sets, 25-19, 25-19, 25-17. McCutcheon, led by its star player Chloe Chicoine, got out to big leads in the first two sets. Fishers was able to come back in those first two sets and played the Mavs close early in the third set, but McCutcheon never allowed the Tigers to get ahead during the entire match.
“Chloe is a fantastic player, but they are a great team,” said Fishers coach Steven Peek. “You can’t just set one kid and win. You have to pass well, dig well, get good block touches, serve the ball tough, and McCutcheon did all of those things tonight.”
The Mavericks got out to a 5-0 lead in the first set before the Tigers won their first point. McCutcheon then led 8-2, but Fishers went on a five-point streak to get within 8-7. JaNyah Henderson helped out with a block and Margo Hernandez served an ace.
The Tigers tied the set at 9-9, then at 10-10 after Henderson put down a kill. Fishers was still within 14-14, but the Mavericks won back-to-back points and steadily increased their lead until the end of the set.
McCutcheon then leaped out to an 8-0 lead in the second set. The Mavericks’ advantage stayed around that margin until Fishers went on another five-point run to get within 15-13. Lucy Kay and Ava Vickers both hit kills during that time.
The Tigers were as close as 17-15 before McCutcheon went on a six-point run to take control of the set. Chicoine put down a pair of kills during that run, then made the kill to deliver the second set.
Fishers kept things close in the early part of the third set. After getting down 7-4, the Tigers won three points to tie it up, starting with a kill by Leslie Groff.
The Mavs jumped ahead 11-8, but Fishers came back to tie it again at 11-11. Carsen Plew and Kay both made kills, then Plew was successful on a block. McCutcheon then scored three straight points and held the lead from there; the Tigers were within 14-13 before the Mavericks finished by winning 12 of the last 15 points, defending its regional title.
“We had good moments where, we had a good block and forced her into using her rolling tip shots, which we know she has,” said Peek. “I just don’t think we defended them as well as we should have, especially in Sets 1 and 2. And Set 3, we did a better job of that, which I thought gave us some good runs and led to us being in it a little bit longer. We started better in Set 3 because we had that. Just a little ‘too little, too late.’ But McCutcheon is an incredible team, and I thought we made some good adjustments to try to be in it. We just didn’t quite execute tonight on that.”
Henderson led Fishers with eight kills and five blocks, while Plew hit seven kills. Kay had five kills and four blocks, followed by Vickers’ five kills and three blocks. Hernandez dished out 27 assists to go with nine digs and two aces, while Samantha Perdue served one ace.
In the semi-finals, Fishers beat Fort Wayne Carroll in a tough four-set match, 29-27, 18-25, 25-20, 25-17. The Tigers toughed out the match thanks to their blocking, especially in the last set.
“We had 15 blocks as a team and seven in Set 4,” said Peek. “But we knew blocking would be really important to what we had to do, because Carroll does spread the ball around a lot and they set things to both antennas, pin-to-pin really well. You have to have the legs and the focus to be able to do a lot of blocking, whether it’s to get a block or to help your back row. We did a good job initially, but kind of warmed up into our prime there, especially in Sets 3 and 4. I think that definitely helped tilt things in our favor.”
Groff hit 17 kills for the Tigers on .500 hitting. Plew had 11 kills and 10 digs, with Henderson hitting eight kills. Vickers made eight blocks, Perdue collected 12 digs, and Hernandez had 44 assists, eight digs and seven blocks, including three in the fourth set.
Fishers finished its season 22-6, winning the program’s first sectional title since 2018 along the way.