The Greensburg volleyball teams swept the Eagles of Jac-Cen-Del on Thursday.
The reserve Pirates won their sixth straight match and upped their record to 7-8 on the season with the 25-15, 16-25, 15-10 win.
The greatly improved junior varsity team have turned their season around as of late after losing six straight at the beginning of the season.
"They have a great coach (Coach Andrea Wynn), and enjoy playing for her," says Pirate head coach Randy Obermeyer.
In game 2 of the match, the Pirates may have been overconfident and may have felt the match had already been won, according to Obermeyer. JCD proved that it indeed was not over by starting the game off strong enough to force two Greensburg timeouts before the Pirates hit 10 points.
"They completely caught our young ladies off guard and forced the third game," noted Obermeyer.
Greensburg broke open a tight third game with a run to win the match 15-10.
Mollye Leas led the Pirates in passing from serve receive with five and
no errors. Amber Leitgabel had a solid game defensively passing nine digs with
no errors. Leas also led the team on the offensive side of the court as she put
down six kills. Leitgabel led in assists with seven and Melissa Fry toed the
service line for three aces.
An exciting varsity match ensued going four games with a 1-point total spread between the two teams. One team averaging 25 points per game and the other team averaging 24.75 points per game, as Greensburg ended the night with 100 points and JCD ended with 99.
"We moved so much better tonight transitioning to our defensive positions, and then transitioned well to set up for the quicker attack," noted Obermeyer.
Game 1 saw Greensburg struggling to pass to the target, which made it difficult to attack with any authority. Trailing most of the game, Greensburg lost the opener 25-16.
Game 2 saw five ties, with the last one at 20-20. A kill by Erica Oakley and one by Ciara Hershauer, along with three hitting errors by JCD, pushed Greensburg to a win at 25-21.
It took 10 ties and a total of 62 points before Game 3 was decided. A 4-0 Greensburg lead in the beginning and a 24-19 lead towards the end looked as though Greensburg would be going into the fourth game with control over the match. However, as momentum changes like it does in the game of volleyball, JCD refused to give up and served three aces along with forcing two Greensburg hitting errors to tie the game at 24-24. Another ace by JCD gave the Eagles the lead and game point at 25-24. A kill by Kelly Nicholson, which was then followed by a Nicholson serving error, gave JCD a 26-25 lead with game point again. A Holly Kohrman kill followed by a Kohrman ace gave Greensburg a 27-26 lead and game point. A JCD kill and an Oakley kill, put Greensburg up 28-27 and game point once again. A JCD block with a JCD kill afterwards, put the lead into JCD''s hands at 29-28. A digging error, and an attack error by JCD gave the lead to Greensburg once again at 30-29. A serving error by Ciara Hershauer, tied the game at 30-30. A JCD hitting mistake put Greensburg into an offensive position for April Hershauer to bang the last point away for a kill and a 32-30 win.
Game 4 showed an amazing 14 ties to reach 24-24. Two consecutive back row attacks by Kelly Nicholson put the game and match away for Greensburg at 26-24.
Leading the team in passing from serve receive was Ashley Leitgabel with 17 followed by April Hershauer with 14. Nicholson led in digs with 16, followed by April Hershauer with 14.
Offensively the two sisters, April and Ciara Hershauer knocked down 31 kills,
Ciara with 17, and April with 14. Assists came out equally between Oakley and
Kohrman, both with 18 each. Only seven aces were recorded for Greensburg and
three of those belonged to Kohrman.
"I feel that the conditioning program that was put into place at the beginning of the season really made the difference tonight. They were able to stay on their feet and stay hustling after the ball late into the match. They showed what hard work and dedication can do. They should be proud of it," added Obermeyer.
The win brings the varsity record to 8-16 on the season.
The Pirates travel to Batesville at 5 p.m. on Monday and then host Milan at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
Click here to see photos of the Jac-Cen-Del vs. Greensburg volleyball games.