Noblesville girls volleyball rally in match’s fifth set against Pendleton Heights
By RICHIE HALL
NOBLESVILLE – The Noblesville volleyball team served its way out of trouble on Tuesday and kept its unbeaten start to the season intact.
The Millers won an exciting five-set match over Pendleton Heights at The Mill, 15-25, 25-17, 19-25, 25-22, 15-13. Noblesville trailed 12-8 in the fifth set before making a big rally to close out the match and run its record to 6-0.
Junior Riley Resmer started the run with a net tip, then served back-to-back aces. The Millers soon had the set tied at 12-12. The Arabians then hit a big kill to move ahead 13-12, but an error tied it up again at 13-13. Freshman Reese Resmer then set up match point by making a kill, then senior Diana Cox stepped up and served an ace to clinch the match.
“This team has a lot of fight in them,” said Millers coach Annie (Phillips) Poulson. The coach thinks her teams play better in those fourth and fifth sets.
“They’re up for the challenge and they’re ready for that challenge every time,” said Poulson. “And they’re ready for the challenge even when they’re down four and it’s 12-8. And they’re just hungry. They’re very hungry for what’s to come of Miller volleyball.”
Reese Resmer is one of two freshmen in the varsity lineup. The other is setter Madison Brown, who did her job well against Pendleton Heights by dishing out 30 assists.
“Our freshmen have a really big role on the team,” said Poulson. The Millers have gotten the freshmen implemented into the Noblesville system quickly, and it’s worked: Poulson said “they don’t act like freshmen out there, which is what we’ve asked of them.”
Noblesville series Ava Rundle (left) and Ava Harris stepped up for the Millers against the Arabians. Harris hit 16 kills, while Rundle made several big defensive plays. (Reporter photo by Kent Graham)
At the same time, Noblesville has plenty of experienced upperclassmen. The Millers have five seniors on their roster, and all of them stepped up in different ways. Ava Harris hit 16 kills and made two blocks. Cox collected 16 digs.
The Noblesville junior class was strong as well. Riley Resmer put down 12 kills and Anna Elkin served three aces. Aubrey Stitcher hit several kills in the fourth set, helping the Millers to even the match.
It was a good start to the season for Noblesville after it won five matches last week. That total includes two regular-season matches the previous week, then three more matches last Saturday at the Bishop Chatard Tournament.
“And we’re winning with a lot of different people on the court,” said Poulson. “This Saturday, we won with all 14 kids on our bench. Every single kid got in. And we are the deepest we have ever been as a program. We can put any of our kids in and have faith that they’re going to do the job for us, which is really great, to have confidence in al of those players that come off the bench.”
Noblesville travels to Avon Thursday to play its first Hoosier Crossroads Conference match of the season. Doing well in conference play is one of two big goals the Millers have for this year.
“Our goal as a team this year is to make that post-season emphasis that we haven’t quite made yet,” said Poulson. The same goes for the HCC, where Poulson said “we really have a god to shake some of those things up at the top half of the conference.”