Page 20 - 2020-21 Volleyball State Finals Program

Last Year’s State Finals in Review Last Year’s State Finals in Review

New Castle Tops HSE for Third Consecutive State Championship Heritage Christian Wins First Trip to Volleyball State Finals

Bailey Cox’s ace on championship point gave New Castle a In a match that featured a pair of first-year coaches and two
3-1 (23-25, 25-15, 25-23, 25-18) victory over a game Hamil- teams with a combined total of four seniors, No. 4 Heritage
ton Southeastern to claim the Class 4A state championship. Christian claimed its first state championship with a 3-0 (29-27,
The title for coach Sarah Roush marks the third-straight for 25-18, 25-23) win over No. 2 Wapahani in the Class 2A title
match.
the Trojans and the fourth in program history. New Castle
also won the 4A championship in 2007 and the 3A titles the Coach Kyla Thomas’s Eagles finished the season 30-4, winning
previous two years. their 10 matches all without losing a set. Heritage Christian also
The Royals of coach Jason Young stunned New Castle in accomplished a state title with only one senior on its roster.
the opening set, hitting a magnificent .481 as a team and
pulling out the set after the teams were tied 13 times. The loss for coach Kati Weir’s Raiders is the first in six state-
title match appearances in program history.
New Castle fought back in set two, breaking out to a 7-3
lead and not allowing HSE within four points the rest of the The first set proved the most competitive. Heritage broke out
way. After the hitting performance of set one, the Royals hit to an early, 4-0 lead only to see the Raiders rally to for a 9-8
only .083 in set two. advantage. The Eagles came back behind the hitting of Raven
Set three proved to be the difference as the Royal were Colvin and took a 24-21 lead. The Raiders, however, hung
tough to force ties at 24, 25, 26 and 27 before a Lovie Wallace
either tied or led nearly the whole way before a Laila Smith kill gave HC another set point, which it then clinched on a net
kill broke a 23-23 tie to bring the Trojans to set point. Senior violation.
Melani Shaffmater then closed out the set with a kill. There
were seven ties in the set. Colvin had nine kills in that first set.
The final set was all New Castle after breaking a 10-10 tie. The Eagles overcame a 4-0 deficit in set two, clinching it on a
Smith and Mabrey Shaffmaster each had 20 kills to lead the Wallace kill, then wrapped up the match in set three. Heritage
Trojans, while Abby Weber led HSE with 13 kills. broke out to a 7-0 lead and led, 21-15 before the Raiders rallied
for a 22-21 lead. The Eagles gathered themselves at that point
New Castle finished 35-1 with its only loss coming to As- and wrapped up the match on Colvin’s 18th kill.
sumption of Louisville, Ky. Including the final, the Trojans
lost only five other sets all season. Wapahani, which features five freshmen on its roster (two
The Royals finish 29-5. of which are starters), will graduate only three seniors after
finishing 31-6.
First Brownstown Central Team to Win a State Championship in any Sport
After four tries in program history, Brownstown Central Cowan Tops Trinity Lutheran in Five Sets for Second State Title
finally reached the pinnacle with a 3-0 (23-25, 25-21, 34-32,
25-19) win over Bellmont in the Class 3A championship The only match-up of No. 1 vs. No. 2 teams of the weekend
match. lived up to its billing as second-ranked Cowan claimed a
3-2 (30-28, 25-19, 21-25, 23-25, 15-5) victory over top-
The second-ranked Lady Braves (33-5) had lost in the title ranked Trinity Lutheran in the Class 1-A state championship
match in Class 2A in 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2003 before the match.
comeback victory over the Squaws.
The victory for first-year coach Melissa-Paul Gardner’s
Coach Jennifer Shade’s club had earlier beaten Bellmont in squad gives the school its second state title after the
two sets on Oct. 12, but after the Squaws took the opening Blackhawks took home the 1-A title in 2012.
set behind five kills by Sophie Krull.
Cowan (30-4) pulled out a marathon first set, that featured
Brownstown began its comeback in set two as it overcame 17 ties, then dominated set two.
a 21-17 deficit by scoring the final eight points of the set to
even the match. Kendra McCory had 10 of her match-high
22 kills in that set. Lutheran, however, refused to fold and came back for
wins in sets three and four – the fourth set featured 10 ties
The pivotal third set proved to be a marathon with both before a Ruthie Bingham ace on set point sent the match
teams having several opportunities to take control. There into a decisive set.
were 15 ties and nine lead changes in that set before
Reagan Nuss closed the set with back-to-back aces. In that fifth set, Cowan’s Grace Conway had six of her
match-high 24 points as the Blackhawks hit .300 in the set.
Bellmont, coached by Craig Krull, took an early lead in
the final set, but Addie Wilkerson had four kills and Kayla Cowan’s Martina Demarchi added 20 kills, as well as a
Guthrie added three to lead the BC attack. match-best 10 aces.
Unranked Bellmont, which started the season 3-7, finished The Cougars of coach Faith Wilder-Newland were led by
25-11. Kennedy Hoffmand and Hannah Sabotin with 12 kills each.
The Cougars finish the season at 30-6.
20 IHSAA - Pure Spirit. Pure Sport. Pure INDIANA! IHSAA - Pure Spirit. Pure Sport. Pure INDIANA! 21