<p>Center Grove’s volleyball season began with a loss to top-ranked New Castle. The Trojans — particularly their nine seniors — are determined not to end it the same way.</p>
<p>Avoiding that defeat will require Center Grove to turn in a peak performance. New Castle (also nicknamed the Trojans, for confusion’s sake), comes into Saturday’s Class 4A Columbus East Semistate with a gaudy 33-1 record, the first spot in the IndianaPrepVolleyball ratings and the No. 1 ranking in MaxPreps’ Xcellent 25 national poll.</p>
<p>Despite all of the shiny accolades that accompany its opponent, Center Grove is focusing a good deal of its preparation this week inward.</p>
<p>"It’s focusing on what we’re going to do," senior setter Madison Hammill said. "Respecting their game, but at the same time working on ourselves and working on how we’re going to fix mistakes that we made in this game or made in the past, to just continue getting better in our own way while still recognizing how good of a team they are."</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]
<p>New Castle is unbeaten against Indiana competition this year, with the lone blemish on its record a two-set tournament defeat to perennial power Assumption out of Louisville. The top-ranked Trojans have only lost three sets in state this fall.</p>
<p>Two of those, though, came in the season opener, a 20-25, 25-7, 32-30, 21-25, 15-7 marathon win at Center Grove back on Aug. 17. New Castle also won a two-set tournament matchup six weeks later, but Center Grove coach Chris Due saw enough positives in those two losses to feel good about his team’s chances this weekend.</p>
<p>"I knew after the second time we played them that if we actually had a week to game-plan for them, I felt we can give them a run for their money," Due said. "I really did. We know their strengths, we know their weaknesses. Don’t get me wrong — they’re going to be obviously prepping for us, and they’re going to watch tape as well; however, I think that if we can really game-plan for them and just play with that heart and that intensity that we can definitely beat them."</p>
<p>The heart and intensity were on full display in Center Grove’s regional final victory over Providence, as the Trojans took a two-set lead, gave it away and then recovered quickly enough to lock up the decisive fifth set.</p>
<p>Sophomore outside hitter Katie Egenolf, Center Grove’s leader in kills this season, credits the large senior class with keeping the team on an even keel in tough situations.</p>
<p>"I think MJ (Hammill) and all the seniors really do a good job of calming us down," Egenolf said. "We know that when we play teams like Providence and Yorktown, we can’t panic. We started that fifth set like it was the beginning of the game and came at them with all we had, and it turned out in our favor."</p>
<p>New Castle presents a pair of daunting challenges in the Shaffmaster sisters — 6-foot-3 senior setter Melani and 6-1 junior outside hitter Mabrey, both All-Americans. Mabrey had 35 kills and 21 digs in the five-set win over Center Grove in August, while Melani finished with 18 kills, 44 assists and 11 digs. The team has other weapons, but limiting the damage done by those two will be important.</p>
<p>That’s where the game-planning comes in. Center Grove is largely focused on its own play, as Hammill noted, but part of that is understanding the opponent’s tendencies and plotting to negate and counter them.</p>
<p>"We’re going to work on a lot of scouting," senior outside hitter Anna Line said, "a lot of film, to take the team apart piece by piece and figure out what exactly what we need to do, play by play, to take them down."</p>
<p>While New Castle leans very heavily on the Shaffmasters, Center Grove has loads of depth at its disposal. Five different Trojans finished the regular season with more than 100 kills, and six players were in triple digits in digs.</p>
<p>The hope is that having so many different weapons to work through will make Center Grove more difficult to defend.</p>
<p>"The defense never knows where we’re going to go," Egenolf said. "We have amazing right sides, amazing middles and amazing outsides. There’s so much depth on the team that it really doesn’t matter who we set. They’re going to hit it hard and they’re going to most likely get a kill."</p>
<p>Center Grove’s season hasn’t been smooth sailing. Last year’s kill leader, senior Calista Stafford, missed much of the season with a knee injury and has been limited since returning. Hammill underwent an emergency appendectomy in late August and was out for four weeks, leaving libero Ashley Eck to take on setting duties.</p>
<p>But those hardships only served to toughen the team up and make them more determined to keep this tournament run going as long as possible.</p>
<p>And that means flipping the script against No. 1 this Saturday.</p>[sc:pullout-title pullout-title="If you go" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p><p><strong>Class 4A Columbus East Semistate</strong></p>
<p><p><strong>New Castle (33-1) vs. Center Grove (29-6)</strong></p>
<p>When: Saturday, 3 p.m.</p>
<p>Tickets: $10</p>[sc:pullout-text-end][sc:pullout-title pullout-title="Scouting the semistate" ][sc:pullout-text-begin]<p><p><strong>New Castle (33-1) vs. Center Grove (29-6)</strong></p>
<p>Head to head: New Castle has claimed both meetings this season, winning in five sets at Center Grove in the Aug. 17 season opener (20-25, 25-7, 32-30, 21-25, 15-7) and sweeping a tournament match on Sept. 28 (25-15, 27-25).</p>
<p>IndianaPrepVolleyball.com Z-ratings: New Castle 25.00 (first overall and in 4A), Center Grove 21.49 (ninth overall, seventh in 4A)</p>
<p>Players to watch: New Castle — Sr. DS Zoe Conway, Jr. DS Bailey Cox, Jr. OH Mabrey Shaffmaster, Sr. S Melani Shaffmaster, Jr. MB Laila Smith; Center Grove — Jr. MB Grace Boggess, Sr. MB Jamie Brown, Sr. L Ashley Eck, So. OH Katie Egenolf, Sr. S Madison Hammill</p>
<p>What to look for: Center Grove comes in as a pretty heavy underdog in this battle of Trojans, and with good reason. New Castle has two of the nation’s top players in the Shaffmaster sisters, and the team has lost just three sets against in-state competition this season. However … two of those sets were in the season opener at the hands of Center Grove, which also won last year’s head-to-head meeting in four sets. Chris Due’s club may not have two stars on par with New Castle’s, but he does have balance, an outstanding back row and a Big Ten-bound setter of his own in Hammill. Perhaps more than any team in the state, Center Grove has reason to believe it can stay in the match and pull off the upset against the squad that has won the last two Class 3A state titles.</p>[sc:pullout-text-end]
