INDIANAPOLIS — Awaiting New Palestine in the Class 3A Sectional 28 bracket are some big challenges, but to get to those, they first had to take care of Greenwood Tuesday night.
They did just that, sweeping the Woodmen 3-0 by set scores of 25-11, 25-11, and 25-15 at Roncalli High School to advance to Saturday’s semifinal.
The Dragons came into the night ranked No. 8 in Class 3A and with a record of 27-4, while the Woodmen had a record of 4-24.
Avoiding a letdown was the message from head coach Kelli Gabehart to her team prior to the match.
“The teams that you’re supposed to beat, you don’t always play your best. I felt like we played well though, and I don’t think that there was any letdown,” Gabehart said. “That’s something we talked about and prepped for. We wanted to take care of our side and keep the dialogue positive.”
A back-and-forth start to Set 1 had the Dragons ahead just 12-8 before they pulled away for the double-digit win.
After a Josie Corbett kill got the serve back to New Palestine, junior Azure Flagle held serve for the next seven points.
She had two aces over the stretch, junior setter Samantha Gooding had a pair of kills and junior Hayden Ramsey added a kill to push the lead to 20-8.
Greenwood ended the run on a kill by junior Victoria Ortman, but points from Ramsey and Natalie Sevier closed out the first-set win.
Set 2 followed a similar script.
Following a block by Greenwood’s Maddison Judge that brought the Woodmen within two, 8-6, the Dragons reeled off 14 of the next 16 points.
A few Woodmen attacking errors, two Sevier aces and kills by Sevier and Cayanna Brown highlighted the run.
Late kills by Adrianna Rosebrock and Judge pushed the Woodmen point total over 10, but a Ramsey kill and a Dragons ace sealed the set.
“We just talked about taking care of ourselves and minimizing our errors. We knew if we had a long rally that we could potentially outlast them,” Gabehart said. “They’re out of system a lot, so we focused on the ball going to the outside, and that’s what happened a lot.”
To close out the sweep, the Dragons used another mid-set run.
Kills from Corbett, Ramsey, Sevier and Elena Cook helped the Dragons jump out to a 9-3 lead, but the Woodmen fought back to trim the deficit to 11-7.
Eight of the next 11 points went to New Palestine and helped fuel the Set 3 win.
Sevier had a pair of kills and Corbett added one over the stretch. Sevier finished the night with eight kills, two aces and eight digs, while Corbett had seven kills, two aces and four digs. Along with them, Ramsey had seven kills, Gooding had 22 assists and a pair of aces and Flagle had a team-high 10 digs.
While mainstays in the Dragons lineup were still out there doing what they normally do, around them at times were a variety of different New Palestine rotations.
“I wanted to get all the girls in, especially the JV girls that have practiced with us all season long,” Gabehart said. “They make us better, so it’s nice to reward them for all the hard work that they put in and get them some varsity playing time in the sectional.”
Kills from Corbett, Ramsey and Caylee Brown down the stretch capped off the sweep and sent the Dragons onto Saturday’s semifinal against 18-4 Indian Creek. They’ll play in the first semifinal match beginning at 10 a.m.
“We’re excited. We’ve got three days to prepare for them,” Gabehart said. “We’re going to look at film [Wednesday] and get after it.”
