The Lady Wave finish the season with 16 wins and 14 conference wins. They only lost to Tippcanoe and Butler twice each.
Photos by Drew Terhall | The Daily Advocate
Junior Shyanne Gibboney receives the serve during the first set.
Junior Brooke Schmidt (left) and senior Skylar Bryson (right) get their hands up on the block attempt.
By Drew Terhall
DailyAdvocate.com
NEW CARLISLE — The fifth seeded Lady Wave volleyball team lost 3-1 to the eighth seed Benjamin Logan at Tecumseh High School on Oct. 17 in the Southwest Division II Volleyball Sectional Tournament.
The young Greenville team couldn’t cap off a really good season with a tournament win. Assistant coach Jim Hardesty said while it wasn’t the team’s night, they still have a lot to be proud of and to look forward to.
“It was a tough night for us. We made quite a few mistakes. Pretty proud of them though, they had one heck of a season. They’re young, we’re going to be back strong next year,” Hardesty said.
The first set was all Benjamin Logan. The Lady Raiders jumped out to a 14-3 lead in the first set. Nothing could go right for Greenville.
But, the Lady Wave didn’t give up easily. They fought back as best as they could to make it more of a competitive set. They fell in the first set, 25-15.
The momentum from the comeback attempt carried into the second set. They jumped out to a 9-3 lead and eventually built that up to a 17-8 lead.
The team started to serve better in the second set and the offense was getting into a rhythm. After a comeback attempt by Benjamin Logan, Greenville closed out the set with a 25-15 win.
Hardesty said he felt good after the team came out strong in the second set and fought back. But the next two sets would be all Benjamin Logan.
Serving was the huge difference in this match. Outside of the second set, Benjamin Logan had the edge in serving during the match.
Hardesty said a key part of their game is serving and gaining the advantage in a match by being aggressive behind the line. In this one, Greenville had more service errors than usual while Benjamin Logan got them out of system often.
“Our serving is usually top notch. That’s one of our big strengths. It just didn’t happen tonight,” Hardesty said. “They served us tough and we didn’t make the plays when we needed to.”
The Lady Raiders started the third set on a 5-0 run and won 25-12. After a close start to the fourth set, the Lady Raiders closed out the match with a 25-11 fourth set win to advance in the tournament.
Greenville gained some valuable postseason experience. Hardesty said postseason play is different than regular season play as you don’t feel the pressure until late in the game. The team just didn’t respond well to that pressure.
The Lady Wave will lost three seniors from this season. Hardesty said senior Skylar Bryson, Mya Conway and Ava Loudy all did a great job in this game and during the season.
But, the rest of the team will return and will have players coming up from a junior varsity team that had a nice year according to Hardesty.
Greenville finishes with a 16-7 and a 14-4 conference record. Their four conference losses came to Tippecanoe and Butler, the top two teams in the MVL. The other out of conference losses aren’t bad losses either.
“We did a very good job. We lost to a really good Arcanum team and then we lost to Eaton. They’re all top notch teams that we got beat by. Tonight, we’re not going to hang our heads. We’re going to be proud of it and we’re going to come back stronger next year,” Hardesty said.
The 16 wins is the most by Greenville in recent years. The closest they came to that mark was in 2019 when they reached 15 wins.
Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]
