Western Boone has always been a powerhouse in volleyball and a thorn to all three Montgomery County teams in recent years. Tuesday the Stars made the trip to Crawfordsville for a Sagamore Conference battle with the Athenians. With star hitter Raegan Durbin leading the way, WeBo was able to come away with the 3-0 sweep of the Athenians 25-12, 25-14, 25-11.
The win kept the Stars hopes of a Sagamore Conference title alive after the last two nights saw them hold on to beat rival Lebanon in a five-set thriller then take care of CHS. WeBo improved to 15-8 overall and 5-0 in the SAC while CHS falls to 8-18 on the season and 1-4 in the SAC.
Stat-wise for the Stars, Durbin and 6’2 senior Alayna Christner both had 15 kills. Isabel Adams had four aces, Jania Ransom three, and Durbin added two. Christner had five blocks on the night. With Durbin leading the Stars with 11 digs. Ransom ended the night with 38 assists.
Crawfordsville was led by Ally Strickland with six digs on the night with Alayna Hall and Sam Rohr adding five. Claire Peacock ended with four. Strickland and Peacock once again shared the assist duties with Strickland having four and Peacock seven. Strickland and Devan Johnson both had five kills with Strickland also added three aces.
“I think we went into this game with a lot of confidence,” Cville coach Allison Manwell said. “We knew they might a be a little tired after Lebanon took them to five on Monday. We knew what we needed to do offensively and who to target and overall I’d give us about a B+ in that execution. Defensively it’s really hard to defend a hitter like Durbin and then you have Christner right there with her. That tag-team kept us off balance and forced us into a lot of slumps.”
Despite the loss, a bright spot and maybe what everyone is hoping, a turning point came this past weekend when CHS went 3-0 and brought home the Clinton Central Invite title. Manwell noted how she and the team are looking at that as hopefully a sign that Cville is set to play their best volleyball in the season’s final few weeks.
“It doesn’t matter the quality of competition that was there, winning three games in one day is very difficult to do,” Manwell said. “It’s something that the girls should be proud of. This is the start of probably our hardest week with WeBo and Danville on Thursday. I do think we were ready for tonight but WeBo is a hard opponent. Hopefully we can ride that momentum from the weekend to keep the girls confidence up for the final week next week.”
As Manwell mentioned Crawfordsville travels to Danville on Thursday. They’ll conclude the final week of the regular season next week with three games, a trip to Clinton Prairie on Monday, senior night Tuesday vs Frankfort, and a trip to Covington on Thursday.
