By RICHIE HALL
The Carmel volleyball team won a county showdown with Noblesville Wednesday at the Eric Clark Activity Center.
After dropping the first set, the Greyhounds swept the next three to take the match, 21-25, 25-11, 25-19, 25-19. The victory improves Carmel to 17-8 for the season.
“The girls really buckled down,” said Greyhounds coach Reynae Pierce. “Made a couple lineup changes, but the girls buckled down and just put their heads down, got to work and got the job done.”
The first set was close, with neither team leading by more than two points until the Millers took a 6-4 lead. Noblesville eventually led 13-9 after Izabella Hines teamed up with Lexie Almodovar for a block, then Hines tipped a net shot over. Carmel got as close as 22-21, but the Millers ran off the next three points. Hines and Rose Crist teamed up for back-to-back blocks, then Almodovar finished the set with an ace.
The ‘Hounds dominated the second set, running off nine straight points from 2-2 to take an 11-2 lead. Elana Brueggemann put down four kills during that run alone, with Anne Lesure serving an ace, and Kamryn Kichefski hitting a kill as well. The Millers battled in the middle of the set, with Almodovar hitting back-to-back kills at one point. But Carmel used a five-point run to go ahead 23-9, and Brueggemann closed it with a kill.
Two early runs gave the Greyhounds control of the third set. Down 4-3, Carmel scored five straight points to go up 8-4, then the ‘Hounds ran off six points in a row to lead 14-6. Gabby Smith had two kills in the run.
Noblesville closed things up late in the set with a four-point run to cut the Greyhounds’ lead to 18-14. Ava Nichols served two aces in the run. Another run got the Millers within 22-18, with Almodovar hitting an ace. But Carmel hung on to win the set.
The fourth set was a little closer, until Carmel scored four straight points to lead 21-15. Lesure helped out with an ace. She dished out 24 assists for the match, and served three aces.
Brueggemann finished the game with 15 kills and four blocks.
“She stepped it up and turned it on,” said Pierce. “They’re a fun group to watch for sure, and they make coaching fun.”
Smith hit 11 kills. Lauren Van Remortel handed out 17 assists, Sophie Oliphant collected 16 digs, Morgan Millay had 11 digs and Kelise Twyner made one block.
Amodovar hit 19 kills for Noblesville, also making 12 digs and serving three aces. Nichols handed out 32 assists.
“We started out the match well, first set, we were passing at a really high rate,” said Millers coach Steve Hawthorne. “Second set, we made a couple of errors and honestly, right now that’s one of the things we’re struggling with. We make a few errors and they tend to lead to a lot more errors. As long as things are going well, we do well. So it’s just something that we’re going to have to continuously work on in practice and hopefully find some consistency at the end.”
Noblesville is 7-13 and plays a Hoosier Crossroads Conference match tonight at Franklin Central. Carmel hosts Pike on Monday in a Metropolitan Conference match.
Carmel’s Kelise Twyner (right) goes up to spike the ball while Noblesville’s Izabella Hines (4) jumps to block during the Greyhounds-Millers volleyball match Wednesday at the Eric Clark Activity Center. (Kirk Green)