By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com
The Hamilton Southeastern volleyball team was feeling loose before the Mudsock match at Fishers on Thursday.
Once the match began, the Royals let loose. Class 4A No. 1 Southeastern blitzed through the opening set, came out on top of a highly-competitive second set, then cruised home in the third to take the Mudsock trophy. The set scores were 25-5, 26-24, 25-10.
“We were ready to go from the get-go,” said Royals coach Jason Young. “We’ve been waiting on this and want an opportunity. This match is obviously very special to bring both schools together. They’re playing against their friends, they’re playing against kids they’ve played with, so it’s an extra-special night for us. The environment is just a lot of fun.”
Southeastern ran through the first set and led 6-3 early in the second before the Tigers made their own big run, taking seven of the next eight points to led 10-7. Ava Vickers and Ellen Roberts made a block during that run.
Fishers would continue to lead for most of the set, although the Royals tied it up at 19-19 after Tiffany Snook hit a kill and Avery Hobson served back-to-back aces. The Tigers then jumped back ahead 22-20.
But then Lauren Harden took over. Her block tied the score at 22-22, and she hit four kills over the next six points. Southeastern had a set point at 24-23, which Fishers erased with a kill, but Harden then blasted two more kills to clinch the set.
“I was just thinking we got to play together, we got to communicate more,” said Harden. She said there were times the Royals were making errors on plays because they didn’t communicate, “so just as a team, we talked. We need to communicate more. Just play clean, play relaxed, play our game. We play together, we’ll be fine.”
Hamilton Southeastern’s Sophie Ledbetter led the way on defense with 20 digs. (Kirk Green)
Southeastern slowly pulled away in the third set, a set in which both teams played great defense. On more than one occasion, the Royals would save a ball from the floor with a close dig, get it back up and put a hitter in position to make an attack. Fishers also had some nice defensive gets as well.
Southeastern pulled away when it scored five straight points from 8-5 to take a 13-5 lead, then went up 17-6. The Tigers won back-to-back points to get to 20-10, but the Royals made another five-point run to take the match. Avery Hobson finished it off with a kill.
Hobson put down 13 kills, while Harden hit 11. Hobson also led the serving with five aces, and Kaylyn Christy added four aces. Breonna Goss had a great game at the net, making 4.5 blocks (one solo and seven assists). Macy Hinshaw dished out 20 assists and Sophie Ledbetter collected 20 digs.
Vickers hit seven kills for the Tigers and also made four blocks. Margo Hernandez had 14 assists.
Fishers’ Ava Vickers hit seven kills for the Tigers. (Kirk Green)
“We are a very up-and-down team right now,” said Fishers coach Steven Peek. “The team we played is an excellent team. I thought they made good, small adjustments through the match, but we really didn’t force them into many big adjustments because we played right into their system, what they like to do.”
This was also a Hoosier Crossroads Conference game, and the Royals are now 3-0 in the conference and 11-1 overall. They host Pendleton Heights on Monday. The Tigers are 2-1 in HCC play and 9-5 overall, and play next Thursday at Brownsburg.