Columbus East put together another strong performance Tuesday night, winning its second consecutive volleyball match in straight sets with a 25-14, 25-17, 25-13 decision against Seymour.
Storming out to an 18-9 lead in the first set, the Olympians allowed the Owls to crawl back with a 5-0 run. Showing grit, East settled down taking control of the set, not allowing Seymour to score again.
The second set began with East falling behind early 4-1, but displaying toughness in battling back to control the match with a 5-1 run. With the score tight at 18-16, the Olympians (2-1) put their foot on the gas, stringing together a commanding 7-1 run to close out the set.
After the Olympians first match, a loss to Bloomington North, coach Stacie Pagnard wanted to focus on not allowing teams to string together long runs on her team, which was evident Tuesday night.
“If anybody watched our first match of the year, it was a definite weakness for us, the runs that they were able to string on us,” Pagnard said. “We talked a lot about that in practice — ‘How do we calm down and get back to the basics and handle the first ball and handle the first receive. We did that a lot better tonight than we have in the past.”
Much like the first two sets the Owls hung tough early on in the third, keeping the score close at 14-11. East would display poise, however, finishing the set on an 11-2 run and end the match.
Early in the season Pagnard knows the team will not be perfect, but wants to see it building good fundamentals that will be necessary late into its schedule.
“We look to be improving on the things that we are taking from film and from practice, as well as individual technique issues and/or defensive movement,” Pagnard said. “A lot of discipline can transpire into big time defensive plays.”
The Olympians were led by Kendal Williams’ 25 assists and five aces. Rilee Jessee contributed 10 kills and a block, and Allison Mack had nine digs.
