Published: November 08, 2009 12:04 am      

VOLLEYBALL: Floyd Central loses another heartbreaker at state semifinal

YORKTOWN — On Saturday at Yorktown High School, the Floyd Central volleyball team put forth its best semifinal effort in its third consecutive trip to the Class 4A State Finals.

Unfortunately, it again was not enough for the No. 3 Highlanders to reach their first state championship match since 1990.

In a dramatic match stocked full of momentum shifts, Floyd lost to top-ranked Elkhart Memorial in a five-set thriller, 20-25, 25-22, 25-21, 22-25, 16-14. It was the third straight year that the Highlanders (35-4) had their hearts broken in the first semifinal.

Highlander head coach Bart Powell was not surprised at all that the match between the two top-three teams went five sets.

“I watched their ball control and I felt if we could beat them, I didn’t think the ball control from (the other two state finalists) Center Grove or Muncie Central was as good as theirs,” said Powell, who has guided Floyd to all three state finals. “Their ball control was better than our ball control, and that was the difference in the game. Our attack was better than theirs. But their ball control was better and ball control usually wins games.”

Elkhart Memorial head coach Jacquie Rost also anticipated a five-set marathon in the state opener.

“I expected it all the way,” Rost said. “I didn’t get a chance to see them live. I did get to watch them on film extensively because I knew that they had three absolute bangers. I thought we could stop them and I wouldn’t say we did. Maybe we slowed them down a little bit, and that was our focus.

“We knew we had to do what we do well well, which was tough serving.”

The Highlanders were only a handful of points away from advancing to the final at Ball State’s Worthen Arena. In the final set, they built a 10-4 lead thanks to five combined kills by the offensive duo of senior outside hitter Laura Der and junior middle hitter Jennifer Smith.

But the Chargers (36-2) went on a 9-2 spurt to take their first lead of the set at 13-12. The Highlanders responded by forcing a service error by Memorial’s Krystle Troyer to tie the game at 13. Then Der spiked a kill to give the Highlanders a 14-13 advantage, setting up match point.

But following a Memorial timeout, the Chargers’ No. 1 weapon, senior Brittany Anglemyer, smacked back-to-back kills to put her team back on top at 15-14.

“ Our team’s motto this year, that the seniors chose, was inch by inch,” Rost said about the timeout. “I brought that up. I said, ‘Inch by inch – we have to come back. Sometimes in inches, it only takes one touch.’ I didn’t talk strategy or technique. I just talked heart at that timeout because at that point that’s what it takes to win.”

On the Chargers’ match point, Memorial libero Amanda Troyer ran from the back row and tipped the ball over the net. The Highlanders attempted to bump the ball back over three times, but it went out of bounds as their season came to a disappointing conclusion. It was Troyer’s lone kill of the match.

“I think at the end, we were just hoping for points,” Powell said. “We tried to tip it and it was working, but we should’ve been just whaling on the ball at the end. You’re always playing better when you’re whaling on it.”

Floyd was in control in the first set. The highest its lead got was six points, holding that advantage six times during its 25-20 win.

The Highlanders led 20-19 in the second set after a Smith service ace. But Memorial ended the game with a 6-2 spurt to even the match at one set apiece.

Floyd had another late lead in Set 3. Thanks to a block by Rachel Engle, the Highlanders were up 21-18. But the Chargers rallied again with seven unanswered points to claim victory. Of those seven points, four were off kills by Anglemyer.

Before the fourth, the Floyd players and coaches huddled at the west end of the court to try to regroup. The Highlanders responded after the brief conference, building an 18-14 advantage thanks to a 4-0 run.

Like they had in the second and third sets, the Chargers put together a late rally. An Anglemyer kill deadlocked the set at 22. But Floyd held Memorial off with three straight points to sew up the game thanks to a kill and a block by Smith and a Der kill.

“At the end of Game 2 and Game 3, we were leading both of them and we were hoping for points,” Powell said. “At the end of Game 4, we knew that if we didn’t win that game it would be over. So at the end of Game 4, we made things happen.”

Der led the Highlanders with 18 kills, while Smith had 17. Along with her passing prowess, Floyd setter Melanie Stutsman had nine kills and a match-high three aces. Anglemyer, an IUPUI recruit, spiked a match-high 25 kills.

Eight seniors – Der, Stutsman, Kirstin Kemppainen, Rebekah White, Erica Smith, Camry Hinton, Allison Sims and Jordan Owens – played their final match for Floyd Central on Saturday. Stutsman, a Western Kentucky recruit who has been the starting setter in all three of the Highlanders’ state appearances, ended her prep career with a 125-26 record.

“That’s not easy to replace,” Powell said. “These eight seniors got the program going in the right direction. They did it right and the underclassmen are going to follow.”

Memorial advanced to state championship match for the second time in three years.