Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
Center Grove senior defensive specialist Allee Dieterle and her teammates had some special motivation.
“We lost to Franklin twice in a row,” Dieterle said. “It was definitely mentally challenging for us. We focused on mentally persevering and staying calm, working on our service defense and making sure we’re communicating, making sure everyone was on the same page. Tonight everyone was on the same page and we all had the same goal, and it worked in our favor.”
Center Grove captured its ninth consecutive Johnson County tournament title by sweeping Franklin 25-22, 25-21, 25-15 Thursday night in the championship match at Edinburgh.
The Trojans advanced by sweeping Whiteland 25-12, 25-11, 25-12 in a semifinal match earlier in the evening. In the other semi, the Grizzly Cubs defeated Greenwood 25-13, 25-18, 25-18. The third-place match also was a sweep with the Woodmen winning 25-17, 25-23, 25-13 over the Warriors.
Dieterle said losing twice to Franklin made this match more personal because “we really wanted to win.”
Center Grove senior middle blocker Julianna Weems said the team was hoping to face Franklin in the championship.
“We weren’t playing like ourselves the first two times we played them, and I wanted to play them again and show them what we can really do,” Weems said. “I know we are better than we had been playing.”
The Trojans (14-12) were playing without head coach Jennifer Hawk, who was at a work conference in San Diego. Assistant coach Kenna Kleingartner assumed the head coaching duties for the evening.
“Julianna had an incredible tournament,” Kleingartner said of Weems. “She worked hard in practice this week. She was around the block, hitting some incredible shots. She came ready to play.”
Weems said the key for the Trojans in the first tight games was making good shots.
“We were putting the ball in places where they were not and serving aggressively,” Weems said, adding it was one of the team’s best matches this season.
Kleingartner said the team was focused in practice this week.
“We focused on not giving up too many points on errors and keeping the ball in play,” Kleingartner said. “We kept our composure and focused on our side of the court.”
Errors, however, were an issue for the Grizzly Cubs.
“We didn’t make enough plays at the right time,” said Grizzly Cubs coach Pat Carlson, whose team is now 17-7.
Each of the first two sets was tied at 19-all.
“We got down 22-19 twice on errors,” Carlson said. “We lost count at 40-something errors in the match, whether it was hitting errors or serving. Good teams will force you to make mistakes. They played well. They had a good game plan. They were very aggressive. They were hungry because we’ve beaten them twice already. I understood what they were going to bring. I don’t know if our kids knew what they were going to bring.”
The Grizzly Cubs topped the Trojans in five sets in a regular-season match and then won two straight sets in a best-of-three tournament match.
“I’m not upset with how we played,” Carlson said. “I’m upset with how we did things emotionally. We’re going to have to trust ourselves emotionally because we got overwhelmed a little bit. Our passing was all over the place. Any kid under the age of 16 got hit up pretty hard. We’ll be all right. We’re growing.”
