By RICHIE HALL
ARCADIA – Service and smiles brought success to the Hamilton Heights volleyball team on Thursday, and in general this season.
The Huskies swept Pendleton Heights 25-13, 25-16, 25-14 in a home match, running their record to 14-5 for the season. Heights cruised to victory thanks to exceptional serving, aggressive play, and keeping the energy up throughout the match (which accounts for the smiles).
“We do the little dance and celebrate, try to get the energy moving when we want to try to motivate,” said Heights coach Steve Ward. “We were really relaxed tonight, but really focused on what we wanted to do and it was a pretty good outcome for us.”
The Huskies were in control from the beginning. With the score at 1-1, junior Emma Blanton served seven straight points, including an ace during that run. Heights led 8-1 after the run and was never threatened during the set.
“Whenever we can get out to an early start with good serving, it really helps us out throughout the whole match,” said Ward.
Everyone was serving well on the team. Sophomore Macie Smith nailed back-to-back aces during the later part of the set, which got the Huskies ahead 22-11. The offense was doing its job as well, with Smith and juniors Hailey Hall and Patience King both hitting kills. Lauren Lewis, the lone senior on the Heights team, blasted in three kills during the final part of the set, including one on set point to get the Huskies up 1-0.
The second set was a little tighter at the beginning. But the Huskies broke away from the Arabians, with a nine-point run that increased their lead from 9-8 to 18-8. Lewis served during that run, and she smacked two aces, while Smith put down two kills and teamed with Blanton for a block.
Pendleton made a run to get within 19-14, but Smith again stepped up with back-to-back kills, and hit a third kill to move Heights ahead 22-15. The Huskies ran out the set from there.
The Arabians went up 2-0 in the third set, but Smith ended that with another kill. That started a run of three straight points (including a Lewis ace and an Ellie Miller/Smith block), and the Huskies never trailed again. Junior libero Kennedy Cherry helped out with a five-point serving run midway through the set to get Heights up 15-6, and a Smith kill made it 18-8.
Pendleton put up some resistance after that, making a run to get within 21-14. The Huskies took a timeout, and went into their celebration dance again.
“Sometimes we get so laser-focused that we lose some of that intensity of the energy and the excitement,” said Ward. “And so a few years ago, we started doing a celebration to where we could celebrate ourselves and get going and get that energy back.”
The dance worked, as Heights did not lose another point after the timeout. The Huskies swiftly won the next four points to take the match: Lewis put down a kill, Cherry served an ace, then Lewis spiked back-to-back kills to end the match.
Heights will now prepare for a busy week next week. The Huskies host Scecina Monday and Delta on Wednesday, then play in the Hoosier Conference tournament on Sept. 30.
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Hamilton Southeastern rolled to a Hoosier Crossroads Conference victory on Thursday.
The Royals celebrated Senior Night with a 25-10, 25-23, 25-18 victory over Zionsville. Southeastern improved to 5-0 with the win and is still unbeaten for the season at 19-0.
The Royals play Saturday at the Crown Point Invitational.
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Noblesville got an HCC sweep on Thursday, beating Franklin Central 25-13, 25-14, 25-19 at The Mill.
The Millers improved to 3-2 in the conference with the victory and is now 16-3 overall. Noblesville travels to the Yorktown 4-Way tournament on Saturday, where it will take on Noblesville and the host Tigers, last year’s Class 4A state runner-up.
On Wednesday, the Millers beat Carmel 25-20, 25-19, 25-12. Aubrey Stitcher and Anna Elkin both hit seven kills, with Madison Brown dishing out 18 assists. Elkin served five aces, with Brown hitting three.
Maddie Coates collected 12 digs. Reese Resmer had four total blocks (three solo, one assist), while Elaina Hendrix made four block assists.
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Fishers toughed out a five-set HCC win over Avon Thursday, 25-11, 24-26, 25-17, 16-25, 15-6.
The Tigers evened their conference record at 3-3 with the win, and also brought their overall record level at 13-13. Fishers plays Tuesday at Mount Vernon.
Sheridan was swept by a tough Lapel team on Thursday, 25-15, 25-17, 25-17.
Despite the loss, one of the Blackhawks made history. Nova Cross dished out 10 assists, which gave her the school record for most assists in a season. Cross has 416 assists for the year, breaking the old record held by Taylor Bates (412), which was set in 2020.
Trinity Parkin and Meredith Krupp both served one ace. Kenzie Garner hit six kills, with Parkin putting down five.
On defense, Krupp collected 17 digs, with Garner making 10 digs. Cross added seven, Claudia Headlee and Parkin both made six and Ali Pickard had five. Garner had one solo block and one block assist, Parkin and Shelby Eaton both made one solo block, and Beth Adams had one block assist.
Sheridan is 13-10 and plays at Rossville Tuesday in a Hoosier Heartland Conference match.