Athenian Volleyball off to historic start
The Crawfordsville volleyball team is off to a historic start to their 2020 season. The Lady Athenians are currently 10-0 and are looking like a team that looks poised to make a deep postseason run.
“I expected us to have a good start to the season, but I didn’t expect this,” coach Kelly Johnson said. “These girls just play awesome together as a team and they believe in each other. From top to bottom this is nicest bunch of kids I have had, and they come together, and it has been outstanding to watch. This team excels on both offense and defense and the girls have worked extremely hard to get to where they’re at.”
The team returned a good portion of its starters from a season ago (losing just two seniors). This season the Athenians roster features six juniors and two seniors. Crawfordsville also has two sophomores making a major impact for the team as well in Macy Bruton and Hallie Gayler. Bruton on the season has racked up 197 kills.
Bruton does more than just rack up kills for the Athenians. She currently leads the team in aces with 35 and digs with 92.
“I feel like I’m playing more consistent this year,” Bruton said. “I feel like I made a lot more errors last year and that was something that was a focus for me to improve on.”
The biggest win of the season so far came on Monday on the road against Benton Central. Both teams came into the match with a 7-0 record, but the Athenians were able to walk away with a win in four sets.
They way the Athenians are playing right now, Johnson says the only thing that can stop this team is themselves.
“That’s our philosophy every game,” she said. “We can only control what goes on on our side of the court, and we live by that. If we are composed and playing our game, good things are going to happen.”
Junior Shea Williamson credits team chemistry as one of the biggest differences she has seen from last year to this year.
“In the past it has been a struggle to get everyone to gel together, and this year everyone is buying in and that’s made it a lot easier to work together and trust one another.”
Two key pieces of the defense for the Athenians are juniors Alyx Bannon and senior Allyson Barton. Bannon leads the team currently with 21 blocks. Both have been a big reason why the Athenians have lost only two sets on the season.
“We have strong leadership all the way around,” Bannon said. “After a long point when we can block a shot at the net, that just gives excites us even more.”
“We knew we were returning a lot of our team from last season,” Barton said. “That along with our team chemistry is a big reason why we’re playing the way we are right now.”
Only time will tell how far this Athenian team can and will go this season, but right now they looked poised to make some more history.
Allen on pace to be an all-time Mountie
In just her sophomore year, Southmont cross country runner Faith Allen is already on pace to become one of the greatest runners in in school history.
The sophomore already has a semi-state appearance under her belt in her freshman season and is on the verge of setting the all-time school record of 19:00. Her personal best time currently sits at 19:22 which currently is third in school history.
“Faith has looked really good so far this season,” coach Shelley Allen said. “Right now, I’m just trying to provide her all the workouts that she needs to succeed.”
Allen is currently chasing Western Boone’s Audrey Knoper as the area’s main competition, who edged out Allen at the ‘Leap Into September’ meet that was hosted at Southmont.
“I think I’ve started off a lot better in terms of my times this year than I did last year,” Faith said. “I’ve gotten more used to the 5K pace and that has helped out a lot.”
Early on in her career, Faith has already set herself up to be a force for the foreseeable future and looks to have her name at the top of the Soutmont record books when it’s all said and done.
Kennedy ready to lead South boys’ soccer
In her first season as the Southmont boys’ soccer coach, Stephanie Kennedy has already proven that she is more than up to the challenge. She took over for Brandon Rash who resigned after last season.
In the teams first three games, they have already matched their win total from the previous season as the Mounties sit at 2-1 (will need changed based on North Put outcome). The biggest thing that she is stressing to her team early on is to make the simple plays and working hard.
“We’ve constantly been preaching communication when the boys are out there playing,” Kennedy said. “Even in the games we do struggle in this season, I want them to look at what went wrong and grow from it. Whether we win or lose every game is a learning opportunity for us.”
One of their wins on the season came in a county matchup against North Montgomery on Tuesday where the Mounties were victorious 6-0.
With having numerous upperclassmen leadership on the team combined with Kennedy’s coaching, the Mounties look to get back on track after a rough couple of seasons.
