By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

ARCANUM — This year, Arcanum-Butler Schools hosted the varsity volleyball Greenville Federal Invite. Seven Darke County teams and Newton competed in the tournament with each team getting a guaranteed three games.

The host school, Arcanum, took home the tournament win after going a perfect 6-0 in their three matches. Each match was a best of three and the Lady Trojans did not drop a set.

“It was exciting to go 6-0 today. We’re that tone right now for the WOAC this year that we’re coming out big and we’re going to fight every game. We hope to win every game,” Arcanum head coach Jacie Holman said.

The Lady Trojans made it to the finals last year in the event, but couldn’t get the match win for first place. This time around, the team play consistently well throughout the tournament.

They defeated Greenville, 2-0, in the first place match. Both sets started close, but the Trojans would pull away after the first 14 points to get a lead.

A big part of Arcanum’s success came from their serving. Holman said no matter who is back there serving, they feel like they can put pressure on opposing teams with their serving.

“If there’s one thing that Arcanum volleyball really brings this year is the serves. We can move the ball around, we can do those things, we can do the short ball. They don’t know where we’re moving it. It’s just not one or two girls, it’s our whole team,” Holman said.

The Lady Trojans have their eyes on a league title in a wide open WOAC. Holman said they have a great group of girls with high expectations this year. After watching some of the other teams, including Greenville, she was impressed by how everyone played and expects the WOAC to be tough.

Arcanum defeated Greenville 25-18 in the first set then 25-14 in the second set. The Lady Wave hung around, but couldn’t find momentum of their own to get back into the set.

Greenville just missed on a few serves that could have changed the set, especially in the first set. Head coach Michelle Hardesty said they just need to find some more consistency there. But overall, she was happy with how her team improved from the start of the week.

“They had a great day, I’m proud of them. I told them, where we started Monday to where we are today they’re like a different team,” Hardesty said.

Greenville played with a shorter bench that featured more freshmen than usual. Hardesty said she had to call some girls up from the junior varsity after some injuries hit her team. She also said the freshmen did pretty well, but just need to continue to get used to the speed of high school volleyball.

Greenville defeated Newton to get into the final match. Hardesty said even after losing the first set, they still had a positive mindset of making it to the championship match and that propelled them to win the next two sets. She also said the team needs to keep that mindset during matches, especially when serving or their hits aren’t going their way.

Newton finished in third place after defeating Ansonia, 2-0, in the third place match. Newton started with a win over Bradford before they lost to Greenville.

Ansonia start the day with a win over Tri-Village and then lost to Arcanum before their game against Newton to finish fourth.

In the fifth place game and in the consolation bracket championship, Franklin Monroe defeated Mississinawa Valley, 2-1. The Lady Jets lost to Greenville in their first game and then defeated Bradford.

The Lady Blackhawks finish sixth after they lost to Arcanum first and then defeated Tri-Village in a three-set match.

In the seventh and eighth place game, Tri-Village took the win over Bradford.

Everyone was competitive in the tournament as there wasn’t a lot of blowout losses, every set was kept close. For most teams, this was their start to the season. Everyone is now heading into conference play this week as the volleyball season is officially underway in Darke County.

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