Cougars can't catch Cadets

The North Putnam Cougars hosted a solid Cascade volleyball team on Tuesday night and could not stay consistent enough with their play to pick up a win.

The Cadets swept the Cougars 25-18, 25-15, 25-19 in a contest that featured some great rallies and several service errors that prevented big runs.

The Cadet power was just too much late in each game. North Putnam could never find the rhythm to offset the offense of Cascade down the stretch of a set. The loss dropped the Cougars 7-17 on the season, while Cascade improved to 18-12.

“Cascade is a great team. They serve well, they pass well, they have some great hitters. We just have to keep improving. It’s all about us right now,” North Putnam head coach Jenny Heron said.

Cascade took an early lead in the first set, but Mack Mason sparked the Cougars with two kills, one of them a back row kill, and an ace to tie the score at 8-8.

The Cadets slowly pulled away from the Cougars over the final portion of the set, though the teams struggled to put together more than a three- or four-point run due to the fact that there were 12 service errors during the set between the squads. Cascade would score six of the last eight points to pick up the 25-18 win.

“I thought the first set, the other coach and I were like, ‘What is happening?’ It was just serve, serve, serve. That also comes with trying put pressure on the other team with your serves,” Heron said.

Hailee Daigle got the Cougars off to a quick start in the second set with two opening aces. The Cadets settled in and outscored North 13-2 over the early part of the match to open a 13-5 lead.

The visitors controlled the set until Mack Mason had a pair of kills and Morgan Berry had an ace to draw the Cougars within 21-14, but Cascade finished off the Cougars with a 4-1 run in the final portion that typified the night as the last two points by each team were garnered on service errors.

“I think we are better right now than we have been. We still have some struggles, but we settled in at times tonight,” Heron said.

Both teams battled evenly with North finally taking a 15-12 lead on a Tori Detro ace midway through the third set.

Cascade got hot and scored eight points to the Cougars' one point on a Cadet service error in the next few minutes, a run that set up the Cadets with a 20-16 lead.

North was able to cut to 20-18 as Melanie Davies had an ace, but Cascade closed the Cougars out for the 25-19 win and the sweep.

“We’ve just got to keep chipping away at the things we struggle with and continue to maintain the things we do well. I really like where we are heading into sectionals next week,” Heron said.

The Cougars will host their final regular season game on Thursday with Western Indiana Conference opponent Edgewood coming into North Putnam. Then the Cougars will have a bye in the first round of the Class 2A Southmont Sectional and will not play until Oct. 19.