Crawfordsville turned good starts into a quality 3-0 win over North Putnam (25-16, 25-17, 25-18).
The win is the second for the Athenians over the Cougars this season.
“That’s always a plus if you can get two wins on a team,” Crawfordsville coach Kelly Johnson said.
The loss drops North Putnam to 9-4 on the season, while the win props Crawfordsville to 14-3.
The Athenians jumped out to a 16-2 lead in the first set, 7-2 in the second and 6-1 in the third.
“I thought we were fully in control game one and game two,” Johnson added. “We were in a serving slump and served great tonight. We’ve been playing some really good teams. We played tough teams over the weekend and a great CC team last night.”
Crawfordsville had dropped three matches in the last six days to West Lafayette, Greenwood, and Central Catholic.
“All three of those losses were to really strong team, and that’s where you learn,” Johnson said. “You’ve got to learn to outlast and overcome. North Put is a good team, they could have easily come back on us and I felt like we held our composure. They got better and better as the night went on.”
North Putnam fired back in the third set to take a 13-10 lead and again at 18-16, but the Athenians closed the set on a 9-0 run out of a timeout.
“I thought it was a really good team effort tonight,” Johnson said. “I’m proud of the girls. When you play as many matches as you do in volleyball over a short period time. You’re not going to be on top of your game every single time out.”
Macy Bruton led the Athenians with 22 kills and 12 digs, while Laine Schlicher added 28 assists and seven digs and an ace. Hallie Gayler had four kills and a block, Liddy McCarty a kill and Olivia Reed 13 digs. Halle Elliott had five digs and an ace, while Alyx Bannon had a kill, a block, two aces, and two digs, and Shea Williamson 11 digs, two kills and an ace.
Crawfordsville is at North Montgomery on Thursday.
