<p>Missing a potential All-American at setter? No problem. For Center Grove’s volleyball team, there’s always someone ready to step into the void.</p>
<p>With senior M.J. Hammill a late scratch due to an emergency appendectomy, junior Jenna Otto dished out 49 assists to help steer the Class 4A No. 3 Trojans to a 25-16, 25-17, 19-25, 26-24 home victory over Cathedral on Tuesday evening.</p>
<p>"She was a little nervous," Center Grove coach Chris Due said of Otto, "finding out the day of, not really preparing with the starting lineup or going over the offense or anything like that. It was a little nerve-wracking for her, but once she got comfortable on the court I thought she did a great job."</p>
<p>Center Grove (4-1) struggled to find its footing early, with the first set featuring nine ties, the last at 13-13. The Trojans finally pulled away, with a Jamie Brown kill and Rylie McMahen ace starting up a 12-3 closing run.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
<p>A stretch of four consecutive kills, two each from Grace Boggess and Katie Egenolf, helped give Center Grove a 14-9 lead in the second, and it looked like the Trojans was going to pull away yet again. But the Fighting Irish rallied to within 18-16 before Center Grove took command with six straight points and then closed it out on Brown’s fourth kill of the set.</p>
<p>After dropping the third set and still trailing 20-18 late in the fourth, the Trojans got consecutive kills from sophomore Avery Holubar to pull even. The teams swapped points until back-to-back Egenolf kills gave Center Grove a 25-24 edge, and a net violation by the Irish ended the match.</p>
<p>Due said that having a number of players capable of stepping into key roles has been a major plus, and it’s something the team will need with last year’s top hitter, Calista Stafford, still sidelined and Hammill’s status unknown for now.</p>
<p>"We have so much depth on this team," he said. "When players do go down or players are struggling, we have other players we can rely on to throw in there."</p>
<p>Egenolf led the charge offensively for Center Grove with 17 kills.</p>
<p>The defensive specialists delivered their usual solid outing, with Ashley Eck pulling up 25 digs and McMahen and Averie Baker adding 19 and 16, respectively. Their efforts were particularly important late in the fourth set, Due said.</p>
<p>"Cathedral kept a lot of pressure on us, but our back row didn’t back down at all," he said.</p>
