The Columbus Christian volleyball team used strong serving last year to make a run all the way to the Indiana Christian Schools Athletic Association state title game.
Saturday afternoon, the Crusaders picked up right where they left off last fall. They served 23 aces as a team in opening the season with a 25-8, 25-12, 25-10 win against the Columbus Hawks at Foundation For Youth.
“Serving is one thing that I absolutely focus on,” Columbus Christian coach Sarah Stair said. “It starts off a match and continues on in usually positive ways if you have good servers.”
The Crusaders’ first two servers, Madison Henderson and Hannah Stair, each served five early points to give them a 12-2 lead in the first set. The Hawks were within 16-7 before Columbus Christian earned a sideout, and Ann Marie Gandy served seven consecutive points.
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The Hawks, a team of local home-schooled players, were a little more competitive in the second set. They were within 13-9 and 16-10 midway through the set. The Crusaders led 21-12 when they got a sideout and three straight aces from Ellie Ridder to close out the set.
Then in the third set, Henderson served the first 12 points to give Columbus Christian a 12-0 lead. The rest of the set was played nearly evenly. The Hawks were within 23-10 before the Cruasaders got a sideout and a block-kill from Henderson to finish the match.
“This was a really good first game for a couple of reasons,” Sarah Stair said. “I feel like they came out and had a very strong showing for our first match.”
Lauren Hunnicutt recorded eight kills, a block and two digs and Hannah Stair had 12 assists, a block and seven aces to lead Columbus Christian. Ridder added four kills and four aces, Henderson notched three kills and six aces and Gandy served three aces.
The Crusaders have only seven players.
“We played confident,” Hannah Stair said. “I think this was a good game because with the team being really small, some of us were kind of nervous about how the season was going to go. But I think we went out there and kind of proved to ourselves, ‘Hey, we’ve still got this, even though we’re small. If we work together, we can do great things this season.’”
Sarah Lorimor recorded 13 digs and an ace, and Lili Hudson had a kill and a block to lead the Hawks. Hailey Beth Rutledge also pounded a kill, and Elisabeth White tallied six digs.
“We weren’t adjusting to their speed very well,” Hawks coach Chris Lorimor said. “(Friday) night, we played a team with three 6-footers, and it was a power game, and we were pretty well tuned into that. Then today, a lot more speed with Columbus Christian — speed on the serves, speed on the movement, speed on the coverage — and it took us quite awhile to adjust. They were hitting from a lot of different spots, a lot of dinks, and they were finding the open places and we weren’t.”
The Hawks opened their season Friday night with a 26-28, 27-25, 25-14, 25-13 loss to Genesis United at Southside Elementary. White recorded six digs and three aces, and Hudson pounded three kills and a block.
Also for the Hawks on Friday, Sarah Lorimor served three aces and had four digs. McKiah Shearer added two assists and two aces, and Rutledge contributed two kills.
