The good news for Columbus North is that it made improvements from its scrimmage to Tuesday’s volleyball season opener against Seymour.
Unfortunately for the Bull Dogs, that wasn’t enough to get them a win against a talented Owls team. Seymour handed North a 25-21, 25-18, 25-14 defeat.
“We have a lot we still need to work on,” North coach Caitie Greiner said. “Obviously, you never want to peak right off the bat. We’re just going to keep moving forward and improving, and I’ve already seen improvement from last Thursday with Bloomington South to now in what we really focused on from the scrimmage.”
The Bull Dogs were within 4-3 in the opening set when the Owls rattled off eight consecutive points to take a 12-3 lead. Seymour pushed the lead to 21-11 before Jalynn Reardon served North back to within 21-16. The Bull Dogs came as close as 24-21 before the Owls scored the final point.
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In the second set, Seymour stretched a 5-4 lead to 16-6 and never looked back.
North led 6-5 and was tied with the Owls at 7-7 in the third set. the Bull Dogs were within 11-9 before Seymour scored seven in a row to pull away.
“We would just dig ourselves into a hole with a lot of unforced errors that we just weren’t able to bring ourselves out of,” Greiner said. “Being the first match of the season, you expect adrenaline and nerves to kind of start out with, but we just never really got settled at any point in the match, which is something we definitely need to work on. I hope with time throughout the season, we’ll mature into that.”
Emma Tynan pounded seven kills, Kate Whaley recorded 10 assists, Gabby Genth had four blocks, Reardon notched 15 digs and Carley Finke and Sydney Cooper each served an ace to lead North.
Also for the Bull Dogs, Madi Roop tallied four kills, Genth added three kills, Reagan Kane had six assists and six digs, Madison White contributed three blocks, Finke had seven digs and Tynan added six digs.
“I think we had moments where we were really aggressive, and we were pushing on Seymour, and we had a lot of momentum,” Greiner said. “At times, we just get over the hump and take the lead. Seymour is a talented team. They have some big hitters.”
