Greenwood Christian volleyball ousts Edinburgh

<p>Greenwood Christian’s volleyball team lost four of its first five matches this season, but the Cougars have been firing on all cylinders since.</p><p>Izzy Reed put down 23 kills and Mayah Schundelmier added 10 kills and seven service aces in GCA’s 25-11, 25-8, 25-12 victory over host Edinburgh in a Class A sectional opener on Thursday night.</p><p>Greenwood Christian (21-8) will play in Saturday’s second semifinal against a Morristown team that it swept in three quick sets last week. Should it survive that rematch, GCA would face the Hauser-Waldron winner in the championship match that evening.</p><p>Though GCA owns regular-season victories against all of its potential Saturday opponents, it’s not taking anything for granted.</p><p>&quot;We know not to underestimate any teams,&quot; Schundelmier said, &quot;because this is a lot different from the regular season. We know everyone wants to keep going.&quot;</p><p>The Cougars wasted little time seizing momentum in the first set, with Reed putting down a kill on the initial point and Schundelmier’s next four serves going unreturned on the way to an early 10-1 GCA lead. Edinburgh fought back to as close as 13-7 before the visitors put it away, with kills by Reed, Schundelmier and Reed again accounting for the last three points.</p><p>Schundelmier credited coach Tasha Vessely and assistant Brad Odgers with helping her and her teammates target holes with their serves.</p><p>&quot;One of the things that we have been working on a lot in practice is to serve the space of a zone,&quot; Schundelmier said, &quot;and so (Vessely) will give us a zone; she gave me 5 a lot during that game. I was looking for the spaces in between, and so I think that worked a lot.&quot;</p><p>Edinburgh (7-22) took its only lead of the night when Kyah Streeval served up an ace to start the second set, but the Cougars replied with seven consecutive points and never found themselves truly threatened afterward. GCA scored the last eight points, with three of the last five coming on kills by Reed.</p><p>The Lancers put up their strongest fight in the third set, which was tied at 6-6 and still close as late as 13-10 before the Cougars surged yet again on Schundelmier’s serve. The senior had back-to-back aces in helping GCA build its lead up to 18-10, and Edinburgh never got closer than seven after that.</p><p>Despite the defeat, Lancers coach Jamie Turner was proud of what she saw this season from her very young team, particularly after losing junior setter Alyssa Funkhouser to an ankle injury early in Thursday’s match.</p><p>&quot;We knew this year we were in a rebuild year,&quot; she said. &quot;We’ve been real close all season, just trying to get over that hump. We’ve had lots of 23-25s, 22-25s, and with a young team like we have, it’s been refreshing. I feel like there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. … We’re going in the right direction.&quot;</p><p>Greenwood Christian has also been trending the right way after stumbling out of the gate back in August.</p><p>&quot;We started out the season without our middle, Dory (O’Dell), so that was kind of tough,&quot; Schundelmier said. &quot;But as we went on, we just worked to come together, knowing that we wanted to have a winning season — because for a lot of us, it was our last season. So we came together as a team mentally, spiritually, emotionally.</p><p>&quot;Knowing that we wanted to support each other through it helped us regroup and play a lot better.&quot;</p>