Published: October 22, 2009 12:18 am      

Logan volley faces tough sectional test

Pioneer, Winamac look to repeat as sectional champions.

Earlier this week, Logansport senior Jasmine Penny verbally committed to play basketball at DePaul University. Her classmate Kelsey Victor has verbally committed to play volleyball at Valparaiso University.

The two Division I athletes will lead Logansport’s volleyball team at this week’s Lafayette Jeff Sectional.

Both Penny and Victor are 6-foot-1. Other members of the Berries’ tall and talented front row include freshman Alaina Page (6-0), sophomore Katie Champion (5-11) and junior Jennifer Tierney (5-11).

The Berries certainly don’t lack height or athletes who aspire to play at the next level. But to win their first sectional title since 1996, they’ll likely have to beat a Harrison squad that has been their nemesis in recent years.

Class 4A Lafayette Jeff Sectional

Logansport (23-7) drew a bye and faces Kokomo (15-17) at 11 a.m. Saturday. Jeff and McCutcheon square off tonight to open the sectional, and the winner faces two-time defending champion Harrison at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The title match is set for 7 p.m. Saturday night.

Logan won at Kokomo in four games on Oct. 1, which was the match the Berries debuted their 5-1 offense.

“We’ve got to watch out for [Kokomo’s] big girls in the middle and be prepared for their other girls, and we’ve got to be able to cover their tips,” Logan coach Jamee Jones said. “We just have to come prepared to win. We can’t be playing tentatively. We have to go out there with a killer instinct.”

If it’s a chalk sectional, Logan will face Harrison for the title Saturday night. The Raiders defeated the Berries in three games on Sept. 8 and have ousted them from sectional play the last two seasons.

“Harrison is always prepared and ready to go,” Jones said. “We’re trying to get our girls ready.”

Jones said if the two squads meet, the Berries will game plan to slow down Harrison’s 6-3 outside hitter Alexa Banker.

“We’ll put our big blockers up against her,” she said. “If we can stop her and make the other girls play and hit at us, I think we’ll do well.”

The Berries seemingly have gotten stronger as the year has went along despite a change in the offensive system midway through and battling the flu bug last week. Logan won its third straight Cass County Tournament on Saturday night and then won at Knox in three games on Monday night.

“The girls [Monday night] … I couldn’t have asked for a better [match] going into sectional play,” Jones said. “They played wonderfully. Our back row play was amazing. They covered everything.”

Victor finished second in the North Central Conference in kills per game (3.87) to Kokomo’s Kelly Hopkins (4.22). Champion was seventh (3.12).

Victor was also second in hitting percentage (.412), Champion was sixth (.367) and Penny was 11th (.272). Champion was first in aces per game (1.02), Alyssa McPherson was third (.68), McKenzie Mills was seventh (.53) and Erin Angle was 12th (.51).

McPherson was seventh in assists per game (5.18) and Taylor Dill was eighth (3.41). Tierney was eighth in blocks per game (.51), Page was ninth (.49) and Victor was 12th (.41).

Class 2A Southwood Sectional

Lewis Cass is trying to win its first sectional title since 1996, and to do so the Kings will likely have to beat two ranked opponents.

“It’s pretty strong,” Cass coach Cheryl Lane said of the sectional field. “It’s one of the better 2A sectionals around.”

Cass (17-11) drew a bye and faces No. 8 ranked Wabash at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. No. 5 ranked Southwood faces North Miami and Northfield faces Manchester tonight. The winners square off at 11 a.m. Saturday. The final is set for 7 p.m. Saturday.

The Apaches defeated the Kings in three games on Oct. 5.

“[Wabash has] a nice team this year, but I think if we play at the top of our game we can definitely be a solid match for them,” Lane said. “We’ve been playing really good ball here towards the end. I think we can challenge just about anybody in our sectional.”

The Kings won a share of the Mid-Indiana Conference title for their first league title since 1997. Abby Ropes is their top hitter. Emily Beckley and Rachel Aldridge lead the block. Brook Hill and Sydney DeHaven have the best serving statistics, while DeHaven leads in assists. Ropes and Sarah Robertson lead in digs.

Class 2A North Newton Sectional

Winamac won its first-ever volleyball sectional last season and will be looking to repeat this time around. The surging Warrior program won its first Midwest Conference title in 19 years this season.

“We’ve had a lot of firsts this year — beating Pioneer, Triton and Tippy Valley, and winning our conference outright,” Winamac coach Cathy DeFries said. “Now it’s the second season.”

Winamac (26-6) faces Boone Grove at 8:15 p.m. tonight following Culver vs. North Newton. The winners square off at 11 a.m. Saturday. Hebron faces North Judson at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The final is at 6 o’clock Saturday.

“Our only downfall is we never see those teams all year,” DeFries said. “We don’t play Boone Grove, we don’t play North Newton. We’ve done some scouting against them which helps a little, but it’s always good to play them.

“We’ll have our hands full. We’ll definitely have to play well. Boone Grove has been very consistent. They’re not real strong on offense and don’t have a lot of power, but their consistency makes up for that. They minimize their mistakes. If we play smart, we should come out ahead.”

DeFries said the semifinal match between Hebron and North Judson should be intriguing. The Warriors split their two matches against Hebron this season, and they beat North Judson in four games.

Allie DeFries leads the Warriors in kills (4.91), blocks (1.01) and aces (.67) per game this season. Sarah Redweik leads in aces (7.57) and Rachael Franko leads in digs (3.44).

Class A North White Sectional

Pioneer is looking to four-peat as champions, while upset-minded Caston is seeking its first-ever volleyball sectional title.

Caston (6-23) opens the sectional at 6 p.m. tonight against West Central. No. 8-ranked Pioneer (23-9) faces North White at 7:30 p.m. tonight. The winners square off at 11 a.m. Saturday. Tri-County plays South Newton following that contest. The final is at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

Pioneer finished second to Winamac in the Midwest Conference, and West Central was third. Caston finished seventh and is 0-3 against the Trojans entering tonight’s match.

“[Monday night] against Winamac we did a lot better job handling the ball on our serve receive and digs off a team that hits similar to West Central,” Caston coach Heather Schuller said. “We have some confidence going into the game. We need to make sure our blocks are keying on [Riley] Cervenka so we’ll have a chance to get under the ball and pass it. If we can read where [Rylie] Pfledderer is dishing it out, we’ll do a better job against them than we have in the past.

“We’ve been playing very well against some of the better teams and then lacking consistency against some of the other teams we should be beating,” Schuller added. “If we play like we did against Pioneer, we could win.”

Pioneer coach Rod Nies is hoping his squad doesn’t overlook the host Vikings tonight.

“We played them in the regular season and pretty much had our way with them,” he said. “I told our girls they’ll be much improved. [North White is] playing much better defense lately. They’ll look to play very good defense and try to get the ball over in any three shots and then hope to block us or that we have a hitting error. My girls have to be ready to play.”

Kattie Lee and Kelsey Williams lead the Panthers in hitting statistics while Ashley Gerlach is third on the team in that area. Cortney Hanson is the leader in aces and assists. Lee and Gerlach also have a lot of aces for the Panthers, who have multiple players who feature a jump serve.

Haley Markley has led the Comets all season both offensively and defensively stats-wise, with Kelsey Moss and Misty Gearhart following closely behind.