GREENCASTLE — It’s been the story of the season for North Montgomery volleyball. The Chargers are right there on the cusp of winning some key matches but fall short. Wednesday the Chargers traveled to Greencastle and it was a similar situation which saw the host Tiger Cubs come away with a 3-0 (25-20, 25-18, 25-19) win over North Montgomery.
The first set Greencastle (9-7) jumped out to a 5-0 lead. The Chargers battled from behind all set and when Greencastle looked like they were going to finish out the first set in dominating fashion up 24-13, North rallied off seven straight points before the Tiger Cubs took set one. Set two proved to be much more back and forth and late both teams were deadlocked at 17-17. Unable to put a stop to the bleeding, Greencastle scored eight of the next nine to go up 2-0. Set three looked like the Chargers came to play as they jumped out to a 5-0 lead of their own. GC went on a mini 4-0 run to take a 13-8 lead and the Chargers rallied off four of their own late, but it was too little too late as the Tigers Cubs held on for the sweep.
“These girls get in their own heads at times and that’s all it really is,” Charger coach Taylor Dyson said. “We’ve been in almost every single match we’ve played in this year but have struggled to put teams away. One little mistake they sometimes see it as a big issue and just aren’t able to come back from it.”
Ella Fritzen led the Chargers with seven kills in the loss. Piper Ramey added four, Hope Delp and Kaydence Young three and Annabel Anderson and Macee Norman two. Ayden Braun served up five aces with Ramey adding three and Young a pair of her own. Ramey also ended with 15 digs and 12 assists. Anderson ended with 10 digs of her own to go along with three assists. Braun notched seven digs.
The loss for the Chargers sees them fall to 4-8 on the season as they’ll have the rest of the week off before a very bust week next week with three home games. Monday they’ll welcome SAC rival Tri-West, Tuesday Indiana Deaf, and no bigger game than Thursday when North welcomes county rival Crawfordsville as a Charger win will vs the Athenians will clinch the county title for the first time since 2017. Saturday the Chargers will then travel to Seeger for the Seeger Invite.
“We just have to keep the energy level high,” Dyson said of the busy slate next week. “We want to continue to trend upwards and are working on staying consistent each and every match instead of being on this roller coaster that’s happening right now.”
