It was a great way to start the season for Crawfordsville volleyball, as they rallied from the edge of defeat with three straight set wins to beat Sheridan 3-2.
After losing the first set 25-22 and the second set 27-25, the Athenians gathered themselves and won the third set 25-18, and then the fourth 25-23 to set up the fifth and deciding set.
As the whole night had been, it was close throughout that last set, but the home team overcame an early deficit to lead most of the way and with a Lily Hummel ace won the final set 15-12.
“It was a super way to start the season,” Crawfordsville coach Allison Manwell said. “We had crucial senior leadership, especially down the stretch. They were just not willing to lose.”
Hummel had a pair of aces and nine kills as the Athenians had four hitters at or near double-digit kills.
Senior Katy Grace Whitecotton was team co-leader with 11, along with sophomore Reese Price. Junior Ally Strickland had 10.
“Our serving and passing were critical,” Manwell said. “I can’t say enough about the great job Sydney Elizondo did setting the ball for the hitters. Our regular setter Claire Peacock, has missed time due to catching pneumonia and didn’t have enough practices in, so Sydney stepped in and did a great job.”
Both Manwell and Blackhawks coach Melissa Jump pointed to the same factor in winning or losing — communication.
“We did a lot of good things tonight,” Jump said of her squad, who with a 15-13 record last season had the first winning record in school history. “We worked the middle well, our servers did a really good job and we got off to the good start, but we had some communication errors in the fourth and fifth sets, and that was the difference.”
“Our communication won it,” Manwell said. “The girls trust each other, and that leads to people stepping up. They were all looking for the opening, the pass, the shot. They were all looking for ways to win.
The Blackhawks, who have five matches this week, were led by Kenzie Garner with 13 kills, followed by Trinity Parkin and Lainey Mendenhall with eight each. Garner and Parkin combined for 450 kills last season. Nova Cross had 17 assists.
“We were down 2-0 but we were more disappointed that we should have won the second set,” Manwell said. “The girls never got down, we fixed the couple communication errors we had there and came back strong. Reese (Price) really had a good all-around match.”
The sophomore had 21 digs, a pair of helpers and an ace to go with her 10 kills.
Crawfordsville had 13 total aces, led by Olivia Hedrick with six and Ellie Walker with four.
The Athenians are back in action Thursday with a trip to Greencastle.
