By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

BROOKVILLE — In the Southwest Division III Sectional Volleyball Tournament, the fourth seed Arcanum took down Springfield Northeastern, the 17th seed, 3-0.

Head coach Jacie Holman said the team has been battling a sickness all week long. She didn’t have a good idea of what to expect from her team in this one. But, the team came out firing and ready to grab this win.

“We’ve been battling a lot of sickness this week. We were a little nervous stepping on the court. We had a light practice yesterday, no practice Thursday. We were kind of nervous about what we were going to see when we stepped on the court,” Holman said. “Overall, I was pretty happy with my girls. They came out strong and gave a good fight.”

Arcanum won in three sets of 25-8, 25-14 and 25-12. The serving and the defense to offense transition was too much for the Lady Jets to handle.

But during the second set, the Lady Trojans settled in a bit too much and let Northeastern hang around. Holman said she talked with her team about not taking full control over games and letting teams hang around.

The team is a high seed in this tournament and have swept both of their tournament opponents, but it hasn’t been the prettiest.

“I told my girls we deserve that fourth seed, but right now in tournament I don’t know that we’re necessarily showing it,” Holman said.

The Lady Trojans were able to get the kills and get the aces needed to win this one. But it didn’t look as clean as some of their matches before.

Holman said they need to use these opportunities to dominate teams and show they are making progress. They have shown their talent, but need to show they can consistently play up to their standard.

“They’re high school girls and I realize that. But it’s hard to get them into the mindset of ‘play your game.’ I don’t think that’s what we did here today. We just played and were okay with it because we were getting the kills and we were getting the aces. They weren’t necessarily the prettiest that we’ve ever done,” Holman said.

The team will face the fifth seed in Versailles on Oct. 24 at 6 p.m. at Brookville. Holman said it will be hard to prepare for Versailles, but she recalls their games against MAC opponents like New Bremen and Marion Local.

The team will need to take advantage of every opportunity they have to put the ball away against the Lady Tigers. Holman said she is confident that if they play their game, they can give Versailles a run.

Holman believes this team can make a deep run in this tournament.

“I told my coaches before this season had started, before we stepped on the court, my goal this season was to win two tournament games. We’ve done that, but I just told my girls in the locker room that I’m not done with two. Based on what we’ve done this season, we can keep going on a longer run. I truly believe that,” Holman said.

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