For the past few years, the Johnson County volleyball tournament has largely been a symbolic event. Sure, we’ll play it out, but we know what’s going to happen.
Center Grove has taken home the trophy in each of the last seven seasons, in some cases barely breaking a sweat along the way. But while the Trojans remain the favorite until proven otherwise, the prevailing sense is that this year’s tourney title is up for grabs.
“On any given night, if we come ready to play and we’re focused and mentally tough, I think we could hang with anybody in the county,” Indian Creek coach Andi Ferris said. “You never know who’s going to show up from night to night. There’s a lot of good players on all the different teams, and it’s just going to be whose night it is.”
Several of the head-to-head matchups between county rivals during the regular season have hinted as much. Center Grove won its lone county showdown so far but needed five sets to do so, rallying from a set down twice in a 22-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-18, 15-12 triumph over Franklin.
The Grizzly Cubs, meanwhile, have swept an injury-depleted Whiteland team but also lost their season opener against Greenwood — another five-set marathon that saw Franklin erase a 2-0 deficit before coming up short.
Woodmen coach Charisse Mitchell says that she and her team, which also swept Whiteland and Indian Creek and beat Greenwood Christian in four sets, believe they can match up with anyone in the bracket.
“They are very confident,” Mitchell said. “A lot of the times we’ve heard in the past, ‘Oh, it’s Center Grove, good luck’ — kind of one of those pity ‘good lucks’ that we’d get all the time in the past — but I genuinely believe that this year is a different story, and it’s more like, ‘Good luck, I’m so excited to see this match!’”
The Woodmen (14-11) feature a dynamic go-to hitter in junior Mya Ayro but have plenty of other weapons, and while starting setter Ella Dean has been out with an injury for most of the regular season, the team has started to find its rhythm again with sophomore Katie Newett steering the offense in Dean’s place.
“At first, it was a little shaky,” Mitchell said, “but I feel like everything is starting to flow better.”
The same can be said of the Grizzly Cubs, who head into tonight’s Mid-State Conference match at Plainfield having won seven of nine after a bumpy 2-8 start. Franklin’s last five wins have all come in straight sets.
Coach Jess Giles — who was a junior on the Grizzly Cub team that beat Center Grove for the county championship in 2013 — feels good about how this year’s young Franklin team has come together.
“A lot of it comes from senior leadership,” Giles said. “I think they just started having really honest conversations about what the expectations should be from a team chemistry standpoint. A lot of our younger girls are athletic, (but) you can’t produce if you’re playing as an individual. I think the seniors have done a really great job of setting the standards.”
Center Grove (14-7), which drew a first-round bye and will see the Whiteland-Indian Creek winner in one Thursday semifinal, has had an uneven campaign thus far under first-year coach Jennifer Hawk. The Trojans, though, have shown some resilience throughout, pulling out six five-set victories behind the leadership of senior hitters Katie Egenolf and Avery Holubar, among others.
They’ve also faced a tougher overall schedule than any other county team, which Hawk believes will pay dividends not only this week, but in the upcoming state tournament.
“Our strength of schedule is extremely beneficial for us,” she said. “We went toe to toe with (Class 4A No. 1 Penn) on Saturday, and that was a new level that we hadn’t seen yet. It’s coming to that point in the year where you’ve got to start to tighten it up and really find what is your top level.”
The Trojans’ top level could very well be enough to hold onto local bragging rights for the eighth year in a row, but there are several county teams who are looking forward to having a shot at the throne. And for the first time since Giles was wearing a Franklin uniform, those hopes don’t seem so unrealistic.
