GREENFIELD — New Palestine’s unbeaten volleyball team was tested, but it came away unscathed for the 12th straight time.
Against Hancock County and Hoosier Heritage Conference rival Greenfield-Central, New Palestine improved to 12-0 with a 3-1 victory at Dellen Automotive Gymnasium Thursday.
The Dragons won by set scores of 25-20, 25-17, 19-25, 25-17.
New Palestine looked well on its way to its 1oth sweep of the season, but Greenfield-Central, after 15 ties, the final at 19-19, scored the final six points of the third set.
Including Thursday, the Dragons have lost only three sets all season, dropping one to Scecina — the only other team to beat Greenfield-Central prior to Thursday — and Southport.
The Dragons quickly got back on track in the fourth.
A kill to open the game from middle blocker Hayden Ramsey and a pair of service aces from libero Azure Flagle helped get New Palestine out to a 4-0 lead. Back-to-back service aces from Josie Corbett later in the set grew the Dragon lead to 11-2.
Greenfield-Central got to within four, 19-15, after consecutive finishes from senior middle hitter Lili Jeffries, but the Dragons got momentum back after a perfectly-placed kill from sophomore middle Caylee Brown.
Outside hitters Natalie Sevier and Corbett, setter Samantha Gooding — on a tip — and Ramsey all had kills to wrap up the 3-1 victory.
“It was playing our game,” New Palestine head coach Kelli Gabehart said on the key to winning the competitive match between two quality teams. “Our back row was really phenomenal. … There were a lot of long rallies, it was a fun match.”
Flagle finished with an astonishing 45 digs. Sevier had 13. Defensive specialists Makaeli Johnson and Kyndra Monteith had 10 and nine, respectively. Corbett had 10.
The Cougars did their share of digging up Dragon attacks, but not enough to hand their rivals their first loss of the season.
“It’s the best I’ve seen us play defensively,” Greenfield-Central coach Candice Wyatt said. “They have some really good hitters and we were able to keep the ball going on those long rallies and kept fighting for every single point. I’m definitely proud of them for that.
“I wish we would have done a better job finding the holes and placing the ball. I kept telling them this is going to be a game of who can serve better and who can place the ball better when hitting. We haven’t got it through our heads yet that you can’t swing as hard as you can on every single ball. Sometimes you have to place it, and not place it to their libero. That’s something this team is still working on.”
The Cougars were unable to bring their third-set momentum into the fourth. New Palestine came out strong in the match-deciding set and led from start to finish.
Gabehart said she used some positive reinforcement in between sets and it seemed to help get her Dragons back on track.
“I was just positive with them and told them to play with confidence and play to win,” Gabehart said. “That third set, we didn’t have very many runs. It was back and forth. I told them we wanted runs of three and we came out and scored the first three points.”
New Palestine had four-point and five-point runs to get out to a comfortable advantage and finished the match on a 6-2 run.
The first set had seven ties, the last coming at 17, before the Dragons finished it off with an 8-3 run.
The Dragons put away the second set with some strong play from Sevier, who finished with a team-best 20 kills. She had six second-set kills, including three during a stretch where the Dragons increased their lead to five, 20-15. Following a G-C timeout, the first for either team in the match, Sevier helped wrap it up with a pair of service aces.
Greenfield-Central forced a fourth set by scoring the final six points of the third. Tied at 19, the Cougars rolled off the final six points. Much of the scoring came on New Pal errors. The Dragons had a pair of attack errors, a setting error, and a net violation, as well as a serve receive miscue on a Madison Sonsini service ace. Alex Muegge finished it off with a kill.
Four Dragons were in double figures for kills. Ramsey added 14. Corbett and Brown each had 11. Corbett also had five aces, at least one in each set.
Sonsini, unofficially, led the Cougars attack with 14 kills. Middle hitter Harper Holden had 12.
Along with the 12th straight victory, it was New Palestine first HHC game of the year. It also avenged a loss on its homecourt to the Cougars last year.
“These are the games the girls live for,” Gabehart said. “These are the big games they remember after they graduate. The New Pal-Greenfield game is always something on the schedule you look at, you circle and you want this game.”
G-C dropped to 8-2 overall and 1-1 in the conference.
“They have really good hitters and kept hitting it where we weren’t,” Wyatt added. “They’re the best team we’ve seen so far this season. I’m glad we stepped it up a little bit, but just wish we could have stepped it up a little bit more. … I’m proud of them. We’re one of only three teams to take a set from them. They’ve swept pretty much everyone on their schedule.”
