Payten Osborn
A fire alarm delayed the second set of Tuesday’s Hoosier Hills Conference volleyball contest between Columbus East and Bedford North Lawrence.
After a 25 minute delay due to the malfunction of an alarm, it seemed the Olympians had seized the momentum — momentarily.
East claimed the third set, but the Stars denied the fifth-set tiebreaker with one last push to hand the Olympians their first conference loss of the season, 25-22, 25-21, 16-25, 26-24.
East had leads in each of the sets, but couldn’t close them out.
“I would say that is a weakness right now, is that we aren’t finishing it. We get so close, then when the battle starts, we’re not taking it to them like I know we can,” East coach Alison Eagleman said. “We had way better passing tonight. I’m happy with that. We need to put the ball down more. We tipped more than we should have. We’re getting there.”
The Olympians (10-12, 3-1) now have their first blemish in the HHC standings with the loss to BNL (9-7, 1-3). East will have to win out against New Albany Thursday and Floyd Central Sept. 25 to win at least a share of the title.
Payten Osborn tallied 22 assists and five serving aces for the Olympians. Chloe Gill finished with eight kills and 20 digs, and Krea Martin had 24 digs and two aces.
Also for East, Lilah Klei notched 12 kills and two aces, Kenlee Gault recorded 11 assists, Anika Jenkins had six kills and two blocks, Addy Dean added three blocks and Izzy Rice pounded six kills.
It’s past the halfway point of the season and the Olympians have more than doubled their win total of four from last year.
“I’m proud of the girls,” Eagleman said. “They’ve come a long way in the last month. We hope they continue to get better and get some more wins.”
