The Tiger Den was turned into a block party by the Fishers volleyball team Thursday night.
The Tigers took on Noblesville in a Hoosier Crossroads Conference match, and won by sweeping the Millers 25-19, 25-16, 25-22. All three sets followed mostly the same pattern: Fishers would get an early lead, then hold off several Noblesville comebacks along the way.
For example, in the first set, the Tigers led 17-11 before the Millers ran off five straight points to pull within 17-16. Consecutive blocks by Ella Peter and Aubrey Stitcher helped get Noblesville within one point. But Fishers stopped the run and won eight of the next 11 points.
The Tigers dominated the second set, leading 23-11 before the Millers ran off five straight points. Fishers won the last two points to take the set. Noblesville led 2-0 in the third set, but the Tigers scored four straight and never trailed again, although the Millers did tie the set up at 12-12 before Fishers took over for good.
Ava Vickers led the offense with 10 kills, while Carsen Plew hit eight kills. But the story of the match was the Tigers’ blocking. Fishers collected 14 blocks for the match, with Vickers making 9.5, an unheard of amount.
“Being stronger at the net is important,” said Fishers coach Steven Peek. “It’s one thing we’ve been focusing on. Sometimes, putting up a bad block is worse than not blocking at all, because they can tool you and deflect it and make it hard for our defense to work around the block. It was really cool to see that come to fruition tonight, especially very early. I think it set a great tone very early in the match, that you can’t just hit hard at us and wherever you want to, because there’s probably going to be a block there. That’s great to see.”
Adi Amirrezvani and Samantha Perdue both served three aces, with Perdue collecting 10 digs as well. Margo Hernandez dished out 28 assists.
For Noblesville, Stitcher had nine kills and two aces, while Diana Cox made 13 digs.
“We got beat by the faster offense,” said Millers coach Annie Phillips. She noted that Fishers’ setter ran “a very quick and efficient offense,” and said that her team has to be able to run that faster offense. Phillips said if Noblesville “can figure out how to run that fast offense and have blockers keep up with the faster offense, that’s going to be the key for us.”
The Tigers are unbeaten in the HCC at 2-0 and are 5-1 overall. They will play at a tournament at Providence on Saturday. Noblesville is 1-1 in conference play and 3-3 overall, and hosts McCutcheon on Tuesday.
Sheridan fell to Eastern in straight sets on Thursday, 25-14, 25-11, 25-15.
Nova Cross hit five kills for the Blackhawks and also made nine digs. Kenzie Garner served three aces and had to two solo blocks. Taylor Bates handed out three assists and served two aces, Claudia Headlee collected six digs and Jacquellynne Bates had 11 digs and two aces.
Sheridan will play at the Clinton Prairie Invitational on Saturday.