Thursday night’s Hoosier Hills Conference volleyball matchup was more like the ‘de facto’ championship match with both teams unbeaten going in.
The matchup lived up to the billing.
Both teams battled back and forth, but it was the Olympians that found the edge and captured a 31-29, 19-25, 25-21, 25-14 victory over the Highlanders to remain unbeaten in the conference.
The win gives East (9-4, 6-0) at least a share of the HHC title, with a match at Madison still left to play on Oct. 6. But the Olympians will be heavily favored to claim the outright title.
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"It was awesome. It’s such a great feeling, not only as coach but for the girls," first-year East coach Ellyn McIntosh said. "They wanted that, and they’ve been working real hard in practice toward that, and that’s a goal we’ve had all along, and so it’s just amazing for them to reach that goal."
When Floyd Central took the second set to tie the match, instead of feeling down and out, the Olympians regained the intensity, focus and determination that helped them capture the first set.
"We had to come out serving pretty tough. Our serving got a lot tougher in the last couple sets. Our serve-receive got a ton better," McIntosh said. "We came out, and we were being smarter with our ball. We were placing balls where (the Highlanders) weren’t, and we were just following our scouting report to a tee, so the girls played excellent tonight."
East got off to an early 7-4 lead, but Floyd Central came back with five straight points to lead 9-4. The Highlanders looked to have control of the set leading 15-11, but then Reece Whitehead served a couple aces to claw the Olympians back to with 15-14. Floyd Central took the lead 23-19, but failed to close out the set when East came back to tie it at 24-24.
The teams battled back and forth, fending off every set point, but the Olympians finally broke through with the score 29-29, and Whitehead delivered the kill and a Highlander spike attempt landed out of bounds to give East the set.
The Olympians carried it over to start the second set to take a 6-3 lead, but then the Highlanders came back to tie the set at 9-9. The teams traded points, and with the score 13-13, Floyd Central rallied to pick up six of the next seven points to lead 19-14. East got to within 22-18, but couldn’t string a comeback rally, and the Highlanders tied the match at 1-1.
Floyd Central led 6-3 in the third set, but the Olympians came back to tie it at 6-6. After the Highlanders took the next two points, East picked up five straight points to lead 11-8. Floyd Central scored three of the next four points to cut the deficit to 12-11, but the Olympians then scored three consecutive points to force a Highlander timeout. Floyd Central came back to tie the set at 20-20 and led 21-20, but then East scored three straight points to lead 23-21 that forced another Highlander timeout. Following the timeout, the Olympians picked up the next two points to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
It was all Olympians in the fourth set. They jumped out to a 17-6 lead and never looked back to clinch the match.
Whitehead finished with 19 kills, three aces and three blocks; Gabby Dean had 12 kills and five blocks; Katy Jordan tallied 36 assists and 20 digs; Saige Stahl finished with 13 digs and 10 kills; Cadence Gilley added 25 digs and two aces and Libby Dippold pounded 12 kills.
