NEW PALESTINE — With the postseason approaching fast, tough games down the stretch are helping prepare Class 3A No. 6 New Palestine for what’s to come — a potential meeting with Class 3A No. 1 Roncalli in the sectional.
Last week, the Dragons suffered their first loss of the season to New Castle, and on Tuesday night, they fell in straight sets, 3-0, to Class 4A No. 2 Yorktown.
The Tigers were swept by Roncalli 2-0 earlier in the season.
“[Roncalli sweeping Yorktown] was kind of the message this week, because our goal is to beat them,” New Palestine head coach Kelli Gabehart said. “We came into the match knowing that we could win and could compete, they just make runs on you though and that can be disheartening. We just didn’t have it, so got to learn from it and get better.”
To beat a team like Yorktown, you have to play a nearly perfect match.
The Dragons showed flashes at times, but unforced errors and an inability to get the Tigers out of their system were too tough to overcome.
“You can’t really make many unforced errors against a team that doesn’t make a lot,” Gabehart said. “We were trying to serve tough to get them out of their system, but the first two sets the ball was right on top of their setter’s head every time.”
The Dragons took the first two points of the night on a Hayden Ramsey kill and Ramsey block, but a few points later the Tigers took control for good.
With the Dragons leading 5-3, a Shanese Williams kill and an Addie Applegate ace tied it up. The next point went to the Tigers, and they held the lead from there.
An attack error on Yorktown brought the Dragons back within three, 14-11, later in the set, but following the mistake, the Tigers took 11 of the next 14 points.
A Charlotte Vinson kill closed out the first set 25-14.
In Set 2, the Dragons never led, and a Josie Corbett kill to make it 1-1 was the only time the set was even.
The Dragons hung around for half of the set, but after another Corbett kill made it 11-9, the Tigers took the next five points on two Williams kills, a Williams block and a pair of Chloe Ritchie aces.
Two Yorktown service errors and a kill from New Pal’s Caylee Brown were the only Dragon points the rest of the way.
Vinson had two more kills and Marin Hopkins had a pair of aces down the stretch to close out the set 25-12.
After two sets of playing from behind, the Dragons jumped out to an early Set 3 lead.
Aces by Azure Flagle put the Dragons ahead 2-0, and a Ramsey kill made it 3-0.
Two more Ramsey kills and a Corbett kill kept the Dragons ahead by three, 6-3, and after two Yorktown points, the Dragons reeled off five straight to increase the lead to 10-5.
“In the third set we got some aces, we got them out of system and the score was a lot closer,” Gabehart said. “We weren’t playing out of our mind, we knew we could play with them, we just had to get them out of system. We were finding some holes.”
A Natalie Sevier ace, and kills by Brown and Corbett pushed the lead to 15-9 before the Tigers made their move.
Sixteen of the final 19 points went to Yorktown to close out the set and the match with a 25-18 win.
Two timeouts by Gabehart did little to stop the bleeding.
“It’s incredibly tough once they get momentum. They just went on a huge run,” Gabehart said. “My talk at the end was that I was happy that they battled in the third set, but we kind of just laid down at the end of the match which is a bummer. I think we could’ve taken that set from them.”
Vinson had four of the final nine points on three kills and a block. On the night, she had 12 kills.
Ramsey led the Dragons with 13 kills, Sevier had seven, Corbett had five and Brown had three, and Flagle had a team-high 12 digs.
New Palestine plays Winchester in the Richmond Invitational at 10 a.m. on Saturday.
