BLOOMINGTON
Center Grove’s volleyball team kept it close with Class 4A No. 10 Columbus East in each set, but then the Olympians showed why they rank among the top teams in the state.
Columbus East had ball control and turned on the offensive attack to hand the Trojans a season-ending 25-21, 25-20, 25-17 loss in the regional semifinal at Bloomington North on Saturday afternoon.
The loss ends Center Grove’s season at 22-10.
The Olympians beat Center Grove two sets to one during a regular-season tournament, but the Trojans couldn’t return the favor.
“We referenced back to what they looked like then and with some of their recent matches. If we are in system, we can go head to head with speed. Not necessarily height, we’re not the biggest team, but speed and ball control is what we were going to go off of,” Center Grove coach Jennifer Hawk said. “Unfortunately, the ball control wasn’t there, so it became a slower game for us, which then on their side was more beneficial because they are bigger, and a slower offense is easy to block. I felt like they were more in system, and we were not.”
There is a lot of optimism from Hawk, who just wrapped up her first season back at her alma mater, that with several underclassmen returning, the success of the program should continue.
“I had high hopes when I got this job; I had one thing on my mind in winning a state title. We started at tryouts and finding what we felt would get us a title as quickly as possible,” Hawk said. “Whether it was this year or in the near future, that was the statement we made when picking and going through tryouts. The goal in mind was looking for hard-working kids that are going to challenge each other every day.”
The Trojans will lose seniors Katie Egenolf and Avery Holubar. Egenolf will continue her volleyball career at Ball State, while Holubar wants to continue playing but is still undecided on where.
“The two of them, I couldn’t be more grateful for in my first year with this group. I think the two of them really mold what we’re trying to do and lead,” Hawk said. “They kept everybody together on and off the court as a family.”
The Olympians played to their strength against the Trojans Saturday. They utilized middle hitter and blocker Gabby Dean, who is committed to Illinois, to help jumpstart the lead in the second set to 7-4. Reece Whitehead, who had her struggles in the first set, picked up the intensity and made several kills from the outside to help extend the lead to 19-12 and eventually close the set to go ahead 2-0 in the match.
Whitehead kept the Columbus East momentum going to start out the third set and help gain a 12-6 advantage. The Trojans had one last shot of adrenaline and cut the deficit to 18-15, but Columbus East slammed the door shut to close out the match.
“Reece started off kind of rough for us, but then she came through in the second and third sets. Gabby was pretty solid throughout,” Columbus East coach Ellyn McIntosh said. “Both of our middles were pretty solid. We ran the offense that we wanted to run, and things worked out in our favor.”