Columbus East’s Chloe Gilley, left, looks at teammate Erin Williams, right, as she sets the ball to teammate Gabby Dean during a sectional volleyball match against Whiteland at Columbus East High School in Columbus, Ind., Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022.
The Republic file photo
Columbus East and Hauser will both have tough tasks ahead of them in Saturday’s volleyball regional semifinals.
The Olympians will face off against Class 4A No. 10 Castle in the second semifinal match at around 1 p.m. Saturday at Bloomington North. The winner will meet the winner between 4A No. 6 Floyd Central and Center Grove in the 7 p.m. regional final.
The Jets square off against 2A No. 8 Linton-Stockton in the first semifinal match at 11 a.m. Saturday at Mitchell. The winner will face Brownstown Central or North Posey at 7 p.m. in the final.
Hauser’s Charlie Clark celebrates a point during a volleyball sectional match against North Decatur Thursday Oct. 13, 2022, at Hauser High School.
The Republic file photo
After its sweep of South Ripley in the sectional final, Hauser coach Jeff Case said one of the biggest keys to be successful against the Miners is without a doubt ball control. It is a major emphasis in practice all week.
“When we’re passing the ball well, we can run a good offense. We’ve got some options,” Case said. “If we’re not passing the ball well, we get one-dimensional. The teams then know what we’re going to do, and it makes it really hard on us and easier on the other team. We’ve got to do stuff with our offense, and that means ball control to get the other teams out of what they’re going to want to do.
“We’ve really got to focus on first-contact balls. Serve, serve-receive — that’s first contact. We’ll run drills that really reward that play,” he added.
After sneaking past Franklin in a five-set thriller to win its second consecutive sectional title on their home floor on Saturday, East coach Ellyn McIntosh said her team needs to focus on ball control, as well.
“We’ll do some quick drills and work on our serve-receive,” McIntosh said. “We also need to have that first-ball contact.”
Castle (31-4) ended the Olympians’ season last year in the regional final. While East (20-12) hopes to seek vengeance from a year ago, the Olympians must be sure they’re mentally prepared.
“We’re going to have a lot of tough practices this week but then decline it slowly as we get closer to Saturday,” McIntosh said.
Case said the Jets (24-10) also have peaked at the right time ahead of their regional matchup with Linton (25-5).
“We certainly came together at the right time,” Case said. “We‘ve been a little up and down this year. We’ve seen some really good play. We’ve had some decent wins, but we‘ve also had a couple losses that we shouldn’t have. I knew it was there. It was about getting consistent and get focused and coming together. I think that North Decatur (first-round sectional) match gave them confidence in what they can do. I’m really proud of them and real excited to see what we’re going to do.”
Also Saturday, Edinburgh will be hosting its own Class A regional. The Lancers (19-10) face Indiana Deaf (23-11-2) in the semifinals at 10 a.m. The winner will play the Indianapolis Lutheran-White River Valley winner in the 6 p.m. final.
Class A No. 4 Trinity Lutheran will look to defend its Loogootee Regional title. The Cougars (23-10) will play No. 2 Tecumseh (28-4) at 10:30 a.m. The winner will face No. 1 Springs Valley or Lanesville in the final at 6 p.m.
