Menu
Eagles sweep Cougars again to claim Putnam County Volleyball Tournament title
CLOVERDALE — For the current members of the South Putnam volleyball team, 2023 was the first time any had been in the final of the Putnam County Volleyball tournament.
Falling then in two sets to North Putnam, the Eagles had a second chance to claim the county title Saturday against the Cougars and took it with a 25-20, 25-11 victory to claim the school’s first tournament win since 2020.
“Overall, we had such a superb day,” South Putnam head coach Ellen Houser said. “Our energy level was good, the girls played as a team, went for everything, listened to each other, talked to each other, it was a well-played day.”
“South is definitely a scrappy, so kudos to them,” North Putnam head coach Jenny Heron said. “Our scrappiness got better today and we had glimpses of what kind of team we can be a month from now.
“It came down to us erring on our side and that’s something we have to fix as a team.”
The two schools played their in-season match on Sept. 5, a 3-0 sweep for South Putnam, with North Putnam changing its rotation since then.
Both offenses started off strong as seven of the first 10 points came off kills, Eagle freshman Elliana Cox and Cougar senior Mackenzie Mason trading off three each as the two teams were even at 5-5.
An LJ Switzer kill would give South Putnam the lead for good in the set at 7-6 with a Madison Gardner block opening a three-point lead at 9-6.
The lead grew to six at 16-10 following a Layla Mullin kill and Mia Wells ace before a pair of misses and a Melanie Davies kill halved the deficit to 16-13.
South Putnam pushed the lead back out to six at 21-15 off another Mullin kill but North Putnam rallied and closed the gap to two after a pair of Hailee Daigle kills, a Maylee Mason ace and a point from Tori Detro.
The Cougars lost steam, however, as several late errors saw the Eagles pick up the first set 25-20 to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
North Putnam regrouped and took an early three-point lead in the second set at 6-3 following a pair of errors and an ace from Detro.
South Putnam, down 7-4, scored six-straight point with kills from Chlara Pistelli, Gardner and Switzer to take a 10-7 lead.
The Eagle snowball began to speed up from there as the Cougars would score just five more points the rest of way as South Putnam scored 14 of the final 17 points of the set to cruise home to a county title, Cox securing the final point.
“South dug up a lot of balls,” Heron noted. “Danae (Cline) is a great player as the libero in the back row.
“When we swung, we did well on our side, but when we didn’t swing, we gave up some points, though South earned them with their scrappiness on defense.”
“We knew (North) had changed its lineup a little bit but we knew who the artillery was and were still confident in our game,” Houser said. “We told the girls to concentrate on our game and worry less about their game.
“Today was also my 50th win as a coach I believe, which makes it pretty fitting. This is not a bad way to celebrate at all.”
Consolation Match
Greencastle def. Cloverdale 25-7, 25-11
Following its disappointing loss in the opening match of the day, Greencastle made quick work of Cloverdale in the consolation match of the Putnam County Volleyball Tournament, winning 25-7, 25-11.
“I told the girls going into this game that the day hadn’t gone the way they wanted it to but you hold your head high, go out and play the game,” Greencastle head coach Denise Meyer said. “I was really pleased with the way they rebounded and fought.
“They didn’t have anything to prove to me. They had to do it for themselves.”
“Our girls were definitely tired playing back-to-back,” Cloverdale head coach Paige Glassburn said. “The girls played well against North Putnam but we could have definitely competed more against Greencastle.
“We were standing straight up and with a little bit more pickups, we would have been in it.”
The Tiger Cubs jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the opening set behind four Ellie Knuth aces and never lo0oked back, recording 11 aces in total in the round.
Despite a sluggish opener, the Clovers started off the second set with a 4-1 lead and led 5-3 off a Norah Frye kill.
Greencastle service game came sweeping back in as Allie Landry hit consecutive aces following a Makenzie Creviston kill to make it 7-5.
Rhoan Amis added two aces, as would Janae Greenlee while Keely Amis added three-consecutive kills before closing out the match with three-straight aces.