Tonight, Center Grove will try to put the finishing touches on a 10th consecutive Johnson County tournament championship.
The Class 4A No. 8 Trojans took the first step in that direction on Wednesday, overcoming some early resistance before running away with a 25-22, 25-19, 25-10 victory at Indian Creek.
“We’ve always kind of been a learning as we go team,” Center Grove coach Jennifer Hawk said. “That’s why best of five is always great for us; you just have a little more time to kind of figure it out.”
The Braves (16-4) fell into an early 13-4 deficit in the opening set but rallied every time the Trojans threatened to put it away — and they nearly stole the set, charging back from the brink with seven consecutive points to get within 23-22 on Adriana Williams kill and three Center Grove attacking errors. Trojan senior Ava Mardis stopped the bleeding with a kill, and an Indian Creek error on set point fully extinguished the rally.
In the second, the Braves scored four of the first five points and led 12-8 after Alexa Sichting and Mattie Key teamed up for a block. Center Grove (20-3) scored six in a row on the serve of Maddi Higginson to pull ahead by a pair, and a Reese Dunkle kill followed by two in a row from Ellen Zapp stretched the visitors’ advantage to 21-15. Indian Creek scored the next three, cutting the gap to three on a Kendall Eden ace, but Dunkle stopped the momentum with another kill and served out the last three points, with a block from Natalie Vance closing out the set.
Indian Creek’s size, particularly 6-foot-4 middle blocker Faith Wiseman, caused the Trojans some difficulty through the first half of the match.
“For me, I wasn’t really intimidated because we play that all the time in club,” Dunkle said, “but I think as a team it was kind of a shocker. Like, ‘Wow, she’s hitting over our block.’”
Center Grove used an 11-0 run midway through the third set to pull away, stretching a three-point edge out to an essentially insurmountable 20-6 cushion.
The third set aside, Indian Creek coach Daisha Holt was happy with what she saw from her team in defeat.
“The only thing I told them I didn’t want them to do is lay down,” she said. “We played so well. Like I told them, if you play like that, we are in the running for a sectional win — those first two sets. Mental toughness needs to be worked on; body language, all the things. I think we hung with them. I mean, Center Grove, they’re a good volleyball team, and I think we gave them a run for their money. I wish we could have given them a little more of a run.”
Center Grove will face Greenwood Christian in a semifinal match at Edinburgh; the Cougars defeated the Lancers 25-15, 17-25, 25-19, 25-20 in the opening round. Franklin, which received a first-round bye, will meet Whiteland, which was a 25-22, 23-25, 25-21, 25-19 winner at Greenwood.
While potentially having to play consecutive five-setters in one day isn’t the ideal setup, Hawk compared the volume of sets to a typical Saturday tournament and said her team should be equipped to handle it.
The goal, she says, is to take care of business as quickly as possible.
“You don’t have time to waste,” Hawk said. “You want to be efficient, not go four, five both matches. Just taking care of the ball and playing clean is a big way to avoid a lot of long matches and back-to-back long matches.”
And avoid being the first Center Grove team in a decade to come out of the tournament without the trophy.
“We’ve won a lot in a row; don’t want to lose tomorrow,” Dunkle said. “So yeah — we’ll just show up focused, two games in a row.”
