Bedford North Lawrence’s season record made no difference to Columbus East volleyball coach Stacie Pagnard.
The Stars came to the Orange Pit looking for their first Hoosier Hills Conference victory, and just their second win overall against 14 losses. Although Pagnard was confident, she was careful that her Olympians did not overlook BNL.
That mindset was reflected in a 25-16, 25-16, 25-15 East victory.
“Well, we were beat down by 4A No. 1 Providence in our last match, so they knew we had some things to work on,” Pagnard said. “We had a lot to redeem ourselves from. We switched up our passing patterns and offense some, and this helped them stay engaged in the match.”
The home team (7-4, 4-0) jumped out early against BNL (1-15, 0-4) in the first set and never looked back.
After racing out to a 7-3 lead, the Olympians steadily controlled the action, with Reece Whitehead and Rilee Jessee heading the charge. East lead by as many as 10 points on its way to the first set victory. Five of the Stars’ points were scored on Olympian service errors or the score would have been more lopsided.
East continued to stay hot into the second set. BNL was able to fight its way back into the set. The Olympians jumped out to a 13-4 lead, using the serving of Cadence Gilley to go on a 7-0 run. The Stars, however, answered back with a 7-0 run of their own to cut the lead back to 15-11. That was as close as the visitors would get for the remainder of the game. Regann Jessee served East on a quick 6-0 run to extend the lead to 10, and from there, the Olympians closed out the set.
Pagnard decided to rest most of her starters during the third set. Aside from seniors Samantha Hutcheson and Allison Mack, East played mostly freshmen and sophomores. It appeared that BNL was going to take advantage of the young Olympian squad. The Stars charged out to an 8-3 lead before Mack took control from behind the service line, leading East on an 11-0 run to get it a 16-10 lead. From there, the Olympians put the set, as well as the match, away.
“If you just watch the games, you may think that I played some players that don’t play many minutes in the third game. However, we have super competitive practices, so the girls played in the rotations they normally play in. I think it speaks to how deep we are,” Pagnard said.
Whitehead finished with a team-leading nine kills for East, while Rilee Jessee contributed 12 digs.
After playing just the front row last year as a freshman, Whitehead has become a full rotational player this year.
“I have been working on my play in the back row. Tonight, I worked on reading the seams between the blockers and my footwork,” Whitehead said.
If there was a weakness for the Olympians, it was their service game. Although Madyson Foster and Saige Stahl led the team with two aces each, the team had several service errors.
“We have been working on serving to different zones, but we haven’t done it under pressure in a game,” Pagnard said. “So tonight, we tried to do some of that, which led to some of the errors.”
Rilee Jessee stated that she and her teammates guard against overlooking any opponent.
“We cannot walk onto the court and expect to just win. We know we have to play to our ability every match,” she said.
East will host New Albany Thursday night with a chance to clinch at least a share of the conference title.
