For the Daily Journal
BLOOMINGTON
Patience, adjustments and an ability to score points in bunches at critical times, allowed Evansville Reitz to beat the Center Grove volleyball team 15-25, 25-23, 25-19, 22-25, 15-11 in the semifinal round of the Class 4A Bloomington North Regional on Saturday afternoon.
The loss ended the Trojans’ season at 21-11.
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At first, it appeared that the Panthers would be the ones going home and the Trojans would be playing for the championship. Center Grove opened up play in the first set taking a large lead with its serving and blocking
“We followed our game plan to a T,” Center Grove coach Chris Due said. “Our blockers did a great job of containing them.”
In that first set, the Trojans scored five straight points, something they couldn’t do in the other sets, which proved to be extremely vital.
Reitz was able to string together a four-point run in the second set, and more importantly countered the Trojans’ attack.
In the third set, the Panthers strung together two runs of consecutive points with five and a set killing string of seven points to effectively take Center Grove out of it
Center Grove had been getting some good bounces up to that point, but on one particular rally, the ball hit the top of the basketball backboard hanging above, and instead of the ball dropping directly down where the Trojan players were, the ball instead ricocheted backwards and hit the court for a Panther point.
Center Grove came back in a tense fourth set, scoring the last three points. At that point, the Trojans were hoping history was on their side; they came into the day 4-0 in five-set matches.
“Going into it, we were pretty confident that we could go out there and take it,” Due said.
That fifth set was even more tense, with the score tied seven times.
Unfortunately for the Trojans, they couldn’t string together more than two straight points, something the Panthers did twice in that deciding set, including the final three points to take the win.
“They stepped up and made bigger plays in the end,” Due said. “They did it when it really mattered. I thought that (Reitz) was a very good team.”
Center Grove was led by Grace Boggess with 17 kills, while Taryn Kennedy and Katie Egenolf had 10 kills each. Jenna Otto had 43 assists and three aces. Egenolf also had 12 digs and five blocks; Rylie McMahen had 10 digs.
The Trojans should be strong again next year.
Due loses five seniors, including the 6-foot-4 Boggess and starting setter Otto, but with three starters returning plus several experienced underclassmen, Center Grove should remain a threat against any team.
“It was awesome,” Due said of the season as a whole. “Even though they went through a lot of adversity this year, they played hard and left it on the court. It was a unique season.”
