Published: October 25, 2009 02:45 am      

VOLLEYBALL: Floyd Central wins third straight sectional title

JEFFERSONVILLE — About three weeks ago, the Floyd Central volleyball team decided it was time to make the season fun again.

A few more nights like the one they had on Saturday, and the Highlanders will sure have a reason to party.

Third-ranked Floyd rolled to its third consecutive Class 4A sectional title, sweeping Bedford North Lawrence in the championship match at Johnson Arena, 25-10, 25-7, 25-8, and move on to next Saturday’s Class 4A Seymour Regional.

“Three weeks ago, our season just wasn’t where we wanted it to be,” said Highlander coach Bart Powell. “We had to change some things, I had to change some of the ways I was doing things, they needed to change the way they were doing things. We decided we wanted to enjoy the rest of our season.”

The realization came following the Highlanders’ surprising semifinal loss to New Albany in the Hoosier Hills Conference Tournament in Seymour.

“It was kind of a focus thing,” said Powell. “We had lost our focus at that point. Our captain came to me one day and said we aren’t having the season we know we can have. We need to get it back and we need to get our coach back to get us there.”

Since the HHC tourney , Floyd (33-3) has rolled off 10 straight wins, including victories over Class 2A power Brownstown in the regular-season finale and wins over state powers Indianapolis Cathedral and Carmel at the Columbus East Invitational last weekend.

Saturday, Floyd started by avenging its HHC loss by sweeping New Albany in the morning semifinals and then it simply overpowered the Stars in the championship.

Floyd trailed just three times in the three sets, never by more than one point. In nine sets at sectional, Floyd faced a deficit of more than three points just once.

“As a coach, there’s always a tendency to worry,” said Powell. “You fear maybe having a bit of a letdown after playing well in that earlier match. Our hope was that we would continue playing the way we have been the past few weeks and I felt we did that.”

Junior Jennifer Smith controlled the net in the final, slamming 15 kills while teammates Jordan Owens and Laura Der had nine apiece.

The sectional win was Der’s first as a Highlander. The senior played three seasons at Providence before transferring to FC prior to the start of the school year.

“I’m glad to be here,” said a smiling Der after posing for photos with teammates. “It’s been such a great year. This team, we’re all like sisters and we just want to keep going forward from here. We’re playing great. We just have to keep it that way.”

It was business as usual though for the rest of the Highlanders, including senior captain Melanie Stutsman, who has started on the previous two sectional and regional champions.

“It doesn’t get old,” said Stutsman about winning sectional again. “We still are focused on other things. We still have things we want to do with our season. We’re happy but we’re still focused.”

Floyd will open regional play with the winner of the Martinsville Sectional at 11 a.m. on Saturday.



FLOYD CENTRAL-NEW ALBANY

The semifinal billed as a showdown between two top-10 powers failed to materialize as the Highlanders rolled into the final with a 25-20, 25-12, 26-24 victory.

Senior Kirsten Kemppainen had 19 kills, while Der and Smith each had 11 for the Highlanders, who have now beaten New Albany in sectional play three consecutive years.

Floyd closed the opening set by scoring four of the final six points after the score was 21-18.

The late momentum from Set 1 carried over into the second set for the Highlanders, who rolled to a 12-6 advantage and never saw their lead slip lower than five points the remainder of the way.

The third set featured the type of nip-tuck action most predicted from the start. Neither side let by more than three points at any point.

Eighth-ranked New Albany (27-8) led 21-19 late before Floyd pulled even with four of the next six points.

At 23-23, the two sides exchanged a furious back-and-forth rally at the net that finally went the Highlanders’ way for a 24-23 advantage.