NORTH VERNON — Right from the opening serve, the Columbus East volleyball team was all business.
The Olympians took command and never let up, and as a result, sweept Jennings County 25-16, 25-18, 25-15 in Tuesday’s Hoosier Hills Conference matchup.
East coach Stacie Pagnard is excited about her team’s fast start so far to the season.
“It’s great. It’s fun to win. More importantly, it is how we are doing it,” Pagnard said. “It’s the process of having everything we’re having to do in practice, and the practices have been amazing. The constant push to get better is what has gotten us here.”
In the first set, the Olympians (4-0, 3-0) built an 8-2 lead that forced an early Panther timeout. Following the timeout, the momentum of East never stalled. The Olympians had little trouble opening the gap to 20-9 before eventually closing out the opening set.
The second set was much closer. East built a 7-4 lead, but Jennings (5-7, 1-2) came back to tie the set at 9-9. With the Olympians leading 14-13, they scored three straight points that forced a Panther timeout. Jennings got to within 18-16, but East closed the set on a 7-2 run.
The third set turned out much like the first, with the Olympians jumping out to a 9-2 lead. After the Panthers picked up two quick points, East came back on a 7-4 run to lead 16-6 and eventually put away the match.
For East, Kenzie Foster led with 21 digs, Rilee Jessee had 17 digs and Reece Whitehead added eight digs and six kills. Gabby Dean finished with six kills, while Allison Mack had five kills. Cadence Gilley served two aces.
“Jennings is a much improved team. (Jennings) coach Blakli (Hukill) and I think they have really bought in to what she’s doing,” Pagnard said. “Anytime you have a team that is hungry like that, they become a lot more dangerous on the road. All those things put against you, I think our girls did a really good job of establishing our culture.”
