<p>Roxanne Chapman’s pre-match talk to her volleyball team Tuesday night emphasized the need to have fun.</p>
<p>Franklin players took their coach’s words to heart, playing loose and with confidence in a 25-10, 25-16, 25-12 victory at Whiteland to remain unbeaten in the Mid-State Conference standings.</p>
<p>The Grizzly Cubs improved to 11-5 overall and 4-0 in league play.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
<p>“The girls had fun. On our side, we did some things. It was light-hearted,” Chapman said. “Last weekend we played at Providence and were so serious. Sometimes it’s not fun, and I got back to, ‘Why do we do this?’ It’s to have fun and get better at volleyball.</p>
<p>“Whiteland is better than they have been the last couple of years, so it’s nothing against them. We just were doing some tempo things for our team that we’ve been working on.”</p>
<p>Sophomore middle hitter Kabria Chapman paced the Cubs with 10 kills, while senior setter Brooke Phillips added five kills and three service aces. Brooklyn Peddycord and Cami Kelsay had six kills each, with sophomore outside hitter Megan Thompson close behind with five.</p>
<p>“Watching (Whiteland) warm up, I even said to the girls, ‘Don’t take them too lightly,’” Chapman said. “Again, they’re constantly getting better, so good for their program.”</p>
<p>Nonetheless, Franklin dominated.</p>
<p>The Grizzly Cubs closed the first set with a 12-2 scoring run, scored the first seven points of the second set and breezed to a 10-2 advantage to open the final set.</p>
<p>Whiteland’s lone lead of the entire match was 1-0 in the opening set on a kill by Toni Joyner. The junior led her team in kills with four, followed by senior Sarah Staples and freshman Lindsey Jones with three apiece.</p>
<p>“I thought it was pretty fun. Our team really worked together and that makes it easy to play the way we do,” Kabria Chapman said. “We tend to take it a little seriously since we want to win games, but I think we really did a good job of pushing it tonight.”</p>
<p>The Warriors, who were coached by varsity assistant Heather Romine in the place of Carolyn Ray, are now 5-7 and 1-1 in conference play. They return to action this evening with a nonconference match at Indian Creek.</p>
<p>Ray is on maternity leave and is expected to return Monday.</p>
<p>With her squad down 20-9 in the third set, Romine called timeout in a last-ditch effort to give her players some confidence. The Warriors weren’t playing aggressively, and she let them know it.</p>
<p>“The main thing we need to build on is just not dropping down to the level that we used to play at. We need to play at the level we believe we can play at rather than just giving up after something goes wrong,” Romine said.</p>
<p>“We’ve seen them improve on that this year, but it still sometimes just creeps back in.”</p>
