The Noblesville volleyball team did something it hadn’t done in a while Thursday night: Beat Avon.
The Millers hosted the Orioles at The Mill, and it was a hard-fought, four-set match. Noblesville prevailed, coming from behind in the fourth set to win 25-16, 25-22, 17-25, 25-22. The match was also the Hoosier Crossroads Conference opener for the Millers.
“Beating Avon is not something that’s happened to us in a long time,” said Noblesville coach Annie Phillips. “So, we are super happy with that win and we are hungry for more.”
After winning the first, the Millers fell behind early in the second set. Noblesville worked its way back to get within one point of the Orioles at 12-11, then took a 13-12 lead after Riley Branch served back-to-back aces.
“We have been working a lot on our serve and serving competitively, driving the ball in,” said Phillips. “With that comes more errors, because we’re serving more competitively, so we did have quite a few errors. But we’ve been pretty balanced so far the whole season as far as aces go. A lot of people get a lot of aces, which is nice. We don’t necessarily count on one or two servers like we have in the past, either.”
Avon used a flurry of kills to get back in front 16-13, and was still ahead 18-15 late in the set. The Millers responded with four straight points and never trailed again in the set.
The Orioles used a five-point run in the third set to go ahead 10-6, and kept Noblesville at bay from there, scoring the last four points of the set. Avon then led 21-19 in the fourth set before Noblesville took control. Ava Harris hit a kill to tie the game at 21-21, then Riley Resmer made a big block to put the Millers in front. Gabby Weihe hit a kill on match point to clinch the Noblesville win.
Harris led the offense with 10 kills, while Ella Peter hit eight kills. Diana Cox collected 10 digs, and Branch had 34 assists, 11 digs and five aces.
The Millers are 3-2 for the season and play at Fishers next Thursday.
Fishers also picked up a victory in its HCC opener on Thursday, winning at Zionsville 25-17, 25-13, 25-21.
The victory was the fourth in a row for the Tigers, who are now 4-1 for the season. Fishers coach Steven Peek said after the match that everyone seems to think his team is a different team than at the very start of the season.
“You got to come in here and have fun,” said Peek. “The girls have their own little things that they’re doing to make it an interesting match for themselves between the points and they know what they got to do during them.”
Peek also noted the team’s chemistry as well.
“When you’ve got a group that wants to be together, you don’t get in the way of that,” said Peek. “Sometimes good coaching is not stepping in the middle of a good thing and knowing it when we’ve got it.”
Fishers will be off until next Thursday when it hosts Noblesville.
Hamilton Southeastern joined the list of teams that won their HCC openers on Thursday, sweeping Brownsburg 25-16, 25-17, 25-21.
The Royals are 3-2 overall and host their own Southeastern Showcase on Saturday. The Royals play Floyd Central at 1 p.m.
Hamilton Heights scored a five-set comeback victory over New Palestine on Thursday, by the score of 12-25, 21-25, 25-15, 25-20, 15-10.
Kelsey Smith played well at setter and Kennedy Cherry had a solid night serving for the Huskies, who are now 5-2 for the season. Heights plays at Alexandria on Monday.
Guerin Catholic also made a comeback on Thursday, beating Bishop Chatard in a Circle City Conference match.
The Golden Eagles clinched the match by winning the fifth set 15-11. Guerin Catholic is now 1-1 in conference play and 3-5 overall, next playing Tuesday at Shelbyville.