By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

ARCANUM — It’s a close race to the top of the WOAC volleyball standings. With both teams had one conference loss heading into this one, this was a crucial game to get. Arcanum won on their home floor, 3-1, over Mississinawa Valley on Sep. 19 to move ahead in the standings.

It wasn’t an easy victory. At times, the Lady Blackhawks would cut into the Lady Trojans’ lead and make them work harder for the win. Head coach Jacie Holman said when her team let up at times, that gave Mississinawa Valley the momentum they needed to get back into the set.

“I’ll give Mississinawa Valley a lot of credit, they’re a good team. I told my girls we kind of went into cruise control in a couple of those sets. With a team like Mississinawa Valley, you can not let them do that. That gives them momentum and they come back fighting,” Holman said.

In the last eight games, Arcanum has lost in the first set in five of them. Mississinawa Valley came out and continued that trend.

Arcanum pulled away to an 11-5 lead after a 4-4 tie. The Lady Trojans were finishing off volleys and gaining momentum.

It was 17-11 when Mississinawa Valley called a timeout. From that point, the Lady Blackhawks went on a 14-2 run to win the first set. The serving started to give the Lady Blackhawks life after the timeout and they picked up their play to win the set.

Players like seniors Kenzea Townsend, Makenna Guillozet and Brenna Price along with sophomores Makenna Hoggatt and Cora Hoggatt all contributed to get the set win.

For Arcanum, Holman wants to see her team get out to a better start.

“I think the girls come out and they get a little too comfortable. Or they’re not ready, they’re not quite focused. We’ve got to do a better job of coming out and getting on top of teams right away,” Holman said.

Then in the next three sets, Arcanum got out to an early lead and held on for the set wins. In the second set, they had a 19-9 lead. They came out in the second set with a vengence.

But, the Lady Blackhawks didn’t go away quietly. They fought and made it a 20-14 lead to force an Arcanum timeout. Mississinawa Valley picked up their play and gave it their best effort to come back in the set.

But, Arcanum won the second set, 25-16.

The Lady Trojans continued to ride their momentum to a 25-8 win in the third set and a 25-14 win in the fourth set. It starts with the serving for Arcanum.

Holman said she gives credit to her assistant coach Kami McEldowney for giving the girls their spots to hit while serving and they executed in this one.

“Overall, the serving is working and that’s what getting us those out of system balls to come back. My blockers are getting touches and we’re able to run a quicker offense,” Holman said.

Mississinawa Valley also is a great serving team and had some stretches of good serving in this one. Arcanum sold out on serve receive to not let the Mississinawa Valley serves beat them.

Holman said everyone on the team wasn’t afraid to throw their bodies on the court to keep the ball up. That determination helped Arcanum sustain enough momentum to get the win.

Even in the fourth set, Mississinawa Valley was down 20-8 before they made a small run to make it a 21-14 game. They had their moments of great play, but couldn’t get it consistently against Arcanum in this one.

All is not lost for Mississinawa Valley they are 10-5 on the season with a 4-2 conference record. There’s still five more conference games left for the Lady Blackhawks to make some noise in the conference.

They will host Twin Valley South on Sep. 21 with the junior varsity leading off at 5:30 p.m.

Arcanum is 10-2 on the season with a 5-1 conference record. Newton and Preble Shawnee each have a conference loss as well.

Holman said she believes they are in a good spot, but still have many challenges ahead.

“We’re not out of the clear yet. We still have Franklin Monroe and there’s some other tough teams that we’re going to face. But I would like to think that we’re in a really good spot right now and we’ve set the tone of what our end results are going to be hopefully,” Holman said.

Arcanum will next play on Sep. 26 at Bradford with the junior varsity starting at 5:30 p.m.

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