Center Grove players celebrate with the regional championship trophy after defeating Brownsburg.
Rob Baker | For the Daily Journal
GREENFIELD
After a rocky and slow first set, Class 4A Center Grove stormed back and dissected fourth-ranked Brownsburg across the rest of the match to win their regional match by an 11-25, 25-23, 25-10, 25-19 score.
Brownsburg dominated in serve and pass throughout the first set, fundamentally dismantling the Trojans’ usually potent offense spearheaded by senior duo of outside hitter Ellen Zapp and middle blocker Reese Dunkle. Throughout the first, the Bulldogs refused to allow a ball to find the court, while the Trojans struggled to get the ball in system, preventing Zapp and Dunkle from taking clean swings.
Brownsburg jumped out to a 6-2 lead, as a 4-0 run was capped off by a solo block from junior middle blocker London Smith that infused the Bulldog bench with an energy advantage which it rode throughout the first. Solid defense and a series of well-placed roll shots from the Brownsburg outside duo of senior Delaney Steers and sophomore Callie Gibson worked around the dominant Trojan block and forced Center Grove to burn both of its timeouts early. The timeouts did little to halt the Bulldog momentum, though, as Brownsburg cruised to a first-set victory.
“It’s just start over, honestly,” Trojan head coach Jennifer Hawk said of her message to her team after the first set. “Just nerves. Once they took a deep breath, they played a little more relaxed and just more like us.”
An early 5-0 Brownsburg run made it seem as though it the second set would tell a similar tale to that of the first, but Center Grove quickly turned the page and took the momentum, taking advantage of two short runs to tie the set 10-10. The teams traded points as the Trojans began to wear down the Bulldog block and open up opportunities for their seniors. The teams went back and forth, eventually knotting things up at 21-21.
At that moment, the Trojans flipped a switch. A net violation on Brownsburg gave Center Grove the lead late, and Dunkle ripped a cross-court blast off the slide to extend that lead to two. The Stanford commit then went back to back, sending a solo block straight into the court. Suddenly, it was set point for Center Grove.
Steers willed the Bulldogs on, finding back-to-back kills of her own to survive a pair of set points, but a powerful swing from Center Grove sophomore outside hitter Kaylen Plunkard sent the ball sky-high off of Brownsburg, nearly hitting the ceiling before crashing back to the ground to end the set and even the match at one apiece.
The rest of the match was all Trojans. Brownsburg’s apparent advantage in serve and pass evaporated as sophomore Center Grove setter Anabelle Schembra took over, active at the net collecting blocks, dump kills and digs while distributing the volleyball to create constant one-on-one matchups for Zapp, Dunkle and Plunkard.
“The start was rough and it was super scrappy,” Schembra said of the shift into the beginning of the third set. “We were a little bit nervous, which — that’s common, we thought that would happen, but we were also so ready to just fight. It just all came together.“
The top setter in her class across the state according to Prep Dig, Schembra went on to credit her defense, led by senior libero Maddi Higginson and a tandem of passers setting her up and keeping the Trojans perpetually in system, with Schembra noting that the back row was “picking up everything” in the final two sets.
Leading by as many as 15 ,Center Grove cruised through the third set, highlighted by three straight points from Dunkle, the grins never fading from the faces of the Trojans as they won rally after rally.
The fourth set began similarly to the third as Plunkard came out on a mission to launch the Trojans into the next round, taking four straight kills before forcing a free ball that led to an easy finish by Dunkle and gave Center Grove an early 8-1 lead.
“She’s taken a lot of strides in the last few weeks,” Hawk said of Plunkard’s performance. “Even at practice, you can tell it’s just a more mature focus. She looked like a veteran, which is so great, but she made it a point [to say] ‘I’m going to have fun. I’m going to enjoy this.’ It just helps you play a little more relaxed, too, when you’re having fun doing it.”
Steers fought to continue her high school career, ripping off swing after swing to pull her team as close as 14-10, but the Trojans put their foot down and countered with a 4-0 run, which was capped off by an ace from Zapp. The teams traded points, but with a fairly wide margin already established, the Trojans had a six-point lead as they earned match point. Gibson landed a kill to extend the Bulldogs’ season by one additional rally, but a dump kill by Schembra found the court to end the match and send Center Grove to a semistate semifinal against Floyd Central.
“We started a little tradition of toilet papering our coach’s house,” Dunkle said of how her team would celebrate the win before turning to the next match. “I honestly think we forget about this by tomorrow and just be hungry for next week.”
