NEW PALESTINE — It has taken a lot of mini-runs to get on this long run of wins for the New Palestine volleyball team.
On Thursday, the Dragons completed a three-win-in-three-nights week — extending their school-record winning streak to 20 matches — with a 3-0 sweep of Hoosier Heritage Conference foe Pendleton Heights (12-10, 0-4).
“They’re excited about it,” New Palestine coach Kelli Gabehart said of her team getting off to a 20-0 start. “We didn’t start the season saying, ‘Let’s be undefeated.’ We started the season saying ‘Let’s beat Roncalli [the top-ranked team in the Dragons sectional].’ Let’s get better every day to do that. I feel like that mindset of being better every day and trying to give our best night-in and night-out has kind of led to this great season that we’re having.”
In each set the Dragons (20-0, 3-0) had distancing-runs in defeating the Arabians.
The Dragons, No. 6 in the Class 3A Indiana High School Volleyball Coaches Association Z-Ratings, won by set scores of 25-17, 25-22, 25-15.
Trailing 12-10 in the opening set, New Palestine went on a 9-0 run with eight of the points coming on the serve of junior setter Samantha Gooding.
Senior southpaw Josie Corbett had a kill and junior middle blocker Hayden Ramsey had a block to tie the set 12-12. A pair of service aces, another kill and block from Ramsey and a kill from Corbett all were part of a stretch that turned a two-point deficit to a 19-12 lead.
Set two had 14 ties, with the last coming at 22. Pendleton Heights took a 21-20 lead, the fifth lead change of the set, on a service ace from junior Carmen Horn.
After a Dragon timeout, sophomore middle blocker Caylee Brown had a kill to tie it. The teams traded attack errors to get it to a deadlock at 22.
That’s when setter Gooding followed instructions from the head coach and got the ball to the team’s hottest hitter.
Ramsey finished off the second set with three straight kills to give the Dragons a 2-0 lead.
“That was designed,” Gabehart said. “I was telling Sam to go to Hayden to finish the game. She’s really tough in the middle. When we can get a good pass and Sam can get it to her, that’s where we want to go. She’s good at the net, is tough and has that grit and attitude about her that she just wants to win.”
“Hayden is definitely my go-to a lot of times. She’s very consistent,” Gooding said. “Whenever I need a kill, it’s her a lot of times. She’s someone I can trust and we have a good connection for set-to-kill.”
Two long scoring runs secured the decisive third set.
Down 9-7, a Ramsey kill put the ball back in the serving hands of Gooding. This time it was an 8-0 run. It included an ace, two Ramsey kills, a Ramsey block and a combo block shared by Ramsey and Corbett.
Pendleton Heights was able to cut New Palestine’s 15-9 lead to 17-15, but the Dragons finished off the match with another 8-0 run.
“Momentum is huge in our sport,” Gooding said. “[Wednesday] we were very off on serving and I think we made a huge point to do it well tonight.”
The final service run was from senior defensive specialist Kyndra Monteith, who had a 4-0 run on her serve in the second set. Brown had three kills in the final run including the 25th point. Natalie Sevier had a pair of kills and Monteith had a service ace that got the Dragons to match point.
“[Samantha and Kyndra] have really good float serves and when Kyndra goes back behind the line, she can be deadly back there,” Gabehart said. “She’s got a really fast-paced serve and sometimes she’ll just drop in a short one when they don’t expect it. She can move the ball around and she gets those net-clips that touch the top of the tape and roll over.
“She’s got the green light to do what she does and Sam too. She’s a very consistent server and she’s got a good flow on it, so that makes it tough to pass.”
The Dragons had 10 service aces. Gooding had four — at least one in every set and two in the first — Monteith had three. Corbett had two first-set aces and Ramsey had one in the second set.
Ramsey led the Dragons with 15 kills and four blocks. Gooding distributed 37 assists and added five digs. Sevier had nine kills, Corbett followed with eight and Brown had seven.
Libero Azure Flagle, who reached the 1,000-dig milestone of her career in the Wednesday win at Perry Meridian, had a team-high 17 on Thursday. Monteith and Sevier each had 10 digs. Corbett had four.
A year ago, the Dragons had this same three-game stretch. They beat Delta and Perry Meridian, but were unable to win on the road in Pendleton.
“I felt like we ran out of steam [last season], but I thought tonight we looked good,” Gabehart said.
“It’s definitely tough,” Gooding said of playing three matches in three nights. “A lot of people are tired and that killed us last year. Last night [after the Perry Meridian match] we made it a point to get home as quick as we could. We slept in today since we didn’t have school. And, a lot of it was us being on each other to drink water, get rest, helping each other out. [Last season] was definitely in the back of our minds.”
Thursday’s win was New Palestine’s 10th 3-0 sweep. They’ve also had five 2-0 sweeps in Saturday tournaments. Overall, they have won 53 of 58 sets.
“We’ve wanted to do something big, we’ve wanted our year on the [gymnasium] wall, and this is super, super close,” Gooding said of starting 20-0. “This is definitely a huge accomplishment.”
The Dragons will look for their 21st win Monday with a road match at Mooresville (12-5).
Thursday’s win also put the Dragons at 3-0 in the HHC. Their next conference match is next Thursday at New Castle (11-5, 2-1).
