<p>When Madison Hammill headed to bed on the night of Aug. 26, her stomach was bothering her so much that she didn’t sleep — but she went to school the next morning, in large part because she and her Center Grove volleyball teammates had a match against Cathedral.</p>
<p>By the time the match rolled around, Hammill was in an emergency room having her appendix removed.</p>
<p>Junior Jenna Otto stepped into Hammill’s starting setter role on short notice and flourished, dishing out 51 assists that night against the Fighting Irish and 35 more two nights later against Pike. It appeared that the Trojans were well equipped to survive the absence of their All-State senior.</p>
<p>But as Otto got off the bus after the Pike match, she suffered a freak ankle injury that will likely leave her sidelined for several weeks.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]
<p>"It was heartbreaking," Center Grove coach Chris Due said of the injury to Otto, who had also filled in capably for Hammill during the Johnson County tournament in 2017. "It really was. She knew this was her time to get that opportunity she’d been waiting for. She was pretty devastated."</p>
<p>Due then turned to senior libero Ashley Eck, who had all of one practice to adjust to setting before the Trojans traveled to Louisville to play a nationally-ranked Mercy Academy team.</p>
<p>The entry was a bumpy one; Center Grove lost that match in four sets. But Eck and her teammates got their act together the following week with a four-set victory at Carmel and a home sweep of Franklin.</p>
<p>"I never really realized how hard it is to be a setter until I actually became one," said Eck, who is committed to play at Indiana State next year. "My role’s definitely changed a bunch … (but) My teammates are super supportive, and the coaches are really understanding of my mistakes."</p>
<p>Though she had never set in a match before, Due was confident that Eck’s combination of good hands and athleticism made her the best choice to step in and run the offense.</p>
<p>So far, it looks like the right choice. The Trojans are now a solid 8-2 since losing Hammill, including 6-2 with Eck at the controls, going into tonight’s match at Perry Meridian; they’re also 3-0 in MIC play, extending their run of consecutive league wins to 39.</p>
<p>Hammill, who anticipates that she’s about two weeks away from being cleared to return, says it’s been tough to sit and watch, but she also believes that the adjustments the Trojans have had to make due to injuries — senior Calista Stafford, the team’s top hitter a year ago, has also missed the entire season thus far — will benefit them at the end of the year when it matters most.</p>
<p>"It just gives us more confidence knowing that even when things aren’t going exactly how you planned, you battle through it," Hammill said.</p>
<p>"We’re becoming more comfortable being uncomfortable."</p>
<p>Due agrees, pointing out that Center Grove has been forced to build depth in different areas to compensate for the missing players, and he feels the team has shored up its prior relative weaknesses, such as finding ways to run the offense when the ball doesn’t make it into the setter’s hands.</p>
<p>"When we come back, I think we’re going to be stronger in areas where we had struggled earlier in the season," he said. "And we’re going to be hungry. … It’s been rough, but once we get our full squad back, we’ll be healthy, dialed in, focused and ready to make a great run."</p>
