GCA wins county volleyball opener

<p>For the Daily Journal</p><p>Greenwood Christian completed a night of sweeps in the opening round of the annual Johnson County volleyball tournament at Indian Creek on Wednesday.</p><p>The Cougars (14-6) defeated the host Braves in three sets, and in dominating fashion, 25-4, 25-15 and 25-15.</p><p>The Cougars will take on Center Grove in one of the two 5:30 p.m. semifinals at Edinburgh tonight. The other will pit Greenwood against Franklin. The Woodmen advanced with a 25-16, 25-19, 25-19 home sweep of Whiteland, while the Grizzly Cubs went on the road to beat Edinburgh 25-6, 25-12, 25-12.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>Indian Creek only took the lead one time, and it was for a very short period in the third set. The Braves did manage to tie the score in the final set three times as well, but other than that, there really wasn’t much to cheer about for the Braves.</p><p>Not the case for Greenwood Christian, which came into the game brimming with confidence.</p><p>GCA not only expected to advance, but they also expected to sweep the Braves, at least according to coach Tasha Vessely.</p><p>“Yes, absolutely,” Vessely said. “We did some scouting and watched a game they played this year and knew that they had a big middle who would be a strong block, so we wanted to run more outside.”</p><p>That became evident as the Cougars jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first set and gradually increased it despite the timeouts Indian Creek coach Andi Ferris took to calm down her team.</p><p>Miscommunication hurt the Braves in the first set and pretty much set the tone for the rest of the contest.</p><p>Indian Creek (11-14) did battle hard in the second set, especially after falling behind again by a large 16-4 margin.</p><p>GCA was its own worst enemy at times with some miscommunication and some shots that were a little too hard at times. It happened early in the third set, where Indian Creek managed to counter the Cougars in points. However, after the final tie at 10-10, the visitors went on a roll, scoring five straight points and then later outscoring Indian Creek 10-4, including three straight aces by Olivia Shingleton, to close it out.</p><p>Senior Izzy Reed helped the Cougars out as a floor leader and with 17 kills. Mayah Schundeimier added seven kills.</p><p>“We weren’t in our defensive positions where we needed to be,” Ferris said. “That’s one thing my team needs to work on. We need to get back to our normal defense. We didn’t adjust quick enough and getting to our defensive positions.”</p><p>GCA now turns its attention to the highly-regarded Trojans, and they welcome the challenge.</p><p>“We expect a high-level game, and we have to come with our best game to play against them,” Vessely said.</p>