Published: October 23, 2009 12:31 am      

VOLLEYBALL: Showdown set

New Albany, Floyd Central roll into semifinals

JEFFERSONVILLE — Both the Floyd Central and New Albany volleyball teams had little trouble on opening night of the Class 4A Jeffersonville Sectional on Thursday.

Each of the local heavyweights scored resounding wins, sweeping the two matches and setting up a Saturday morning semifinal showdown.

No. 3 Floyd Central continued its late-season roll with a 25-12, 25-4, 25-11 victory over the host Red Devils.

The win came on the heels of the No. 8 Bulldogs opening the night with a 25-15, 25-16, 25-17 triumph over Seymour.

The two local powers will meet at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The Highlanders have won the past two postseason meetings against their county rivals in five sets, en route to advancing to the Class 4A State Finals in Yorktown in 2007 and 2008.

“It’s just one of those matches where whichever team comes prepared is going to be the team that wins,” said Floyd Central coach Bart Powell. “It should be interesting. It always is when we play each other.”



FLOYD CENTRAL-JEFF

On the heels of wins over state powers like Brownstown, Indianapolis Cathedral and Carmel in the final week of the season, Floyd Central (31-3) carried the momentum over into a Round 1 rout of the Red Devils.

The Highlanders broke open the first game with nine straight points after the score was 5-5 and never were threatened the rest of the way as it won 25-12.

In Game 2, Floyd opened with 11 straight points, scored 18 of the first 19 and 24 of the first 26 points in the set before prevailing 25-4. Floyd then closed it out with another dominating set, winning the final game 25-11.

“The matches we played against Jeff during the season, we were able to win but (Jeff) was able to score fairly consistently in each of the matches,” Powell said. “I think tonight the strength of our late-season matches and the level that we had to play to win those carried over into our performance tonight.”

Melanie Stutsman had the biggest night for the Highlanders, totaling 25 assists and nine kills in the match. Jennifer Smith and Kirsten Kemppainen each had eight kills and Smith added five blocks for the Highlanders.

Lakin Roland had seven kills for the Red Devils in the loss.



NEW ALBANY-SEYMOUR

For the first time he can ever remember, New Albany coach John Breeding didn’t feel the urge to call timeout during one of his team’s matches.

“I’m usually the first one to burn through one of those,” joked Breeding. “I had to hold off tonight because we were playing well, and I wanted to see how we would respond to the situations where we were challenged.”

Those situations were few and far between. The biggest deficit the Bulldogs faced on the night was two points in any of the three sets.“We needed that type of performance,” Breeding said. “We needed to come here and play a strong opening match and give us a little confidence as we push forward. I’m very pleased with the way we played tonight.”

Alex Lilly and Shelby Hoskins each led New Albany with nine kills, and teammate Sarah Mathews also contributed seven kills and 12 digs. Lauren Bratcher had 29 assists and 22 digs for New Albany (27-7).