Kenzie Foster
Floyd Central showed it was the team to beat in the Hoosier Hills Conference when they played Columbus East in Thursday night’s volleyball contest.
The Highlanders controlled most of the match from opening serve to put away the Olympians in straight sets 25-19, 25-21, 25-16 and clinch at least a share of the HHC title.
“We didn’t have much offense tonight,” East coach Ellyn McIntosh said. “We weren’t getting kills when we needed them. We weren’t attacking very well tonight, and maybe that’s credit to (Floyd Central’s) defense. It seemed like we couldn’t get a ball down when we needed a ball to be put away. It’s silly mistakes on our end. Our passing was actually good, but our offense wasn’t there.”
The Olympians (8-9, 2-4) and Floyd Central (17-6, 5-0) kept it close early in the first set. The Highlanders eventually took control after the Olympians had a 10-9 lead. Floyd Central scored 12 of the next 16 points to lead 22-14 and eventually put away the set for a 1-0 lead in the match.
The Highlanders looked to be running away with the second set leading 14-11, but the Olympians charged back with five straight points to regain the lead at 16-14. Floyd Central rallied to take an 18-17 lead and never surrendered the lead again to take a two-sets-to-none advantage.
The Highlanders led the third set 15-9 to get the sweep.
For East, Gabby Dean finished with 12 kills, two aces and a block. Maddie Cline recorded 10 digs and nine kills, Kenzie Foster had 15 digs, Erin Williams tallied 23 assists and three blocks, Chloe Gilley added two aces, Caroline Frost had two blocks and Jenna Guse added one block.
“We’re trying to figure out what combinations work and where to go from here,” McIntosh said. “Definitely (today), we’re back to the basics talking about who we’ll see this weekend at Cathedral and just trying to get better one ball at a time.”
