By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — Greenville volleyball hosted a scrimmage with Brookville, Bellefontaine and Mississinawa Valley on Aug. 14. The teams played each other twice in two sessions with 25-minute periods.

For Greenville, head coach Michelle Hardesty said the team started out slow, but finished strong. For assistant coach Jim Hardesty, he thought the team played really well in the second session.

He said while not knowing the score, he felt the team was in control during their matches in the second session.

“Here, I thought we bounced back against some really nice teams. Second time through, I thought we dominated,” Jim Hardesty said.

The team is still figuring some things out before they open the season on Aug. 22 at home against Tippecanoe. Michelle Hardesty said the team does need to come out stronger in games. But overall, she felt the team did get better.

In a setting like this, Hardesty wants to try different things and play different players to find the right combination for when the season comes around.

“We’re messing with our lineups. That’s what scrimmaging preseason is about. Giving everybody the opportunity to showcase their talents and try to figure out something consistent going into next week,” Michelle Hardesty said.

For Mississinawa Valley, they had a solid showing during the scrimmage. Head coach Nancy Whitted said there was a few problems serving. In their first scrimmage, they were a serving team but wasn’t really one in this one.

Overall, Whitted was happy with how the team played together. It’s a team that added a few pieces and are still coming together. It does help that last year Cora and Makenna Hoggatt played a bit of varsity during their freshmen year.

“They gel really well together. We have a freshman on there and a sophomore. I believe all of the others pretty much worked together a lot. Even the twins came up on varsity last year and played a little bit. They’re starting to gel together pretty well,” Whitted said.

Entering this season, the WOAC is wide open for the taking. There’s not a strong preseason favorite to win the conference. It’s a conference made up of a lot of good teams.

Whitted said she told her team they can be the ones to win the league. The Lady Blackhawks have shown up ready to play, but just need to find a bit more consistency.

“They come out of the gate ready to play. They came here to play, they came here to do well. For the most part they did, just kind of inconsistent. We’re going to work on that. But, I told them they really have a strong shot,” Whitted said.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]