By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com
CARMEL – If any sport knows how to pack a big number of matches into a short period of time, it’s volleyball.
Indiana’s boys high school volleyball season began just a few weeks ago, but some teams have already reached their halfway point. Carmel is one of them: the Greyhounds reached their 10th victory of the season Wednesday by sweeping Brownsburg 25-15, 25-17, 25-13 on Bill Shepherd Court at the Eric Clark Activity Center.
“We’re really happy,” said Carmel coach Andrew Fuller. “We’re on a really good trajectory for as young as we are. When you go out there and your running four sophomores [and] a freshman for the rotation, you just don’t know what to expect.”
The Greyhounds first three victories came against New Palestine, Southport and Monrovia at a season-opening tournament on March 21. Carmel lost to North Central in their fourth match that day, then were edged out by Hamilton Southeastern in a five-set match on March 24.
Since then, the Hounds have won seven of their eight last matches. Carmel beat Franklin Community to begin that run, and followed that with four consecutive sweeps, beating Jeffersonville, Madison, Bishop Chatard and Center Grove.
Roncalli ended the Greyhounds’ win streak on April 4 at a tournament, but Carmel rebounded later that day to sweep Jeffersonville again, then took care of business against Brownsburg.
Fuller said his Greyhounds are beating the opponents they should, but now need to find a way to “crack the code” over the top tier of teams.
“We learned our lesson against Roncalli last week,” said Fuller. “We’ve got a little bit of a ways to go.”
Sophomore Eli Philistin-Lynch led Carmel’s offense against the Bulldogs, hitting 11 kills. Junior Jack Kovak made five blocks (three solo, two assists), while senior Brice Hagaman collected nine digs. Senior Shepard Spidel dished out 29 assists.
Philistin-Lynch has 134 kills for the season, which puts him at the top of the statewide leaderboard in that category. Hamilton Southeastern’s Ethan Kilberg is second with 121 kills.
“Eli had great off-season training,” said Fuller. “He was more of a role-player for us last year, but we knew what he was capable of doing and people are starting to see it.”
Spidel has dished out 390 assists for the season, placing him first in the state. The top four assisters are from Hamilton County: Westfield’s Michael Terbish and Southeastern’s Brandt Marchione both have 304 and Noblesville’s Silas Stolt has 241.
Carmel plays a Friday night match at Zionsville, start time is 7 p.m. The Greyhounds then return home on Tuesday, April 14 to take on Westfield. The teams are hoping to have a crowd of 1,000 fans attend that match.
“It should be high-powered volleyball and it should be a great experience for people that haven’t been around boys volleyball,” said Fuller.
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