Published: November 06, 2009 01:03 am      

Floyd feeling different this time

Highlanders hope to bring home first state title

Floyd Central heads to Delaware County Saturday with the expectation of winning its first volleyball state championship.

The Highlanders had the same expectation the past two seasons when they fell short in the state semifinals.

In 2007, the Highlanders were first-timers and played like it in a four-set loss to New Castle. Last year, Floyd won its opening set against Muncie Central, but dropped the next three in a 14-25, 25-22, 25-16, 25-21 defeat.

“We were probably good enough to be there, but we probably weren’t good enough to win it,” Floyd coach Bart Powell said of the 2007 and 2008 state finals.

Powell acknowledged that the 2009 story is a different one.

“It is different,” Powell said about Saturday’s semis, which opens with Floyd Central battling top-ranked Elkhart Memorial at 9 a.m. at Yorktown. “Last year, the four that were there were ranked in the top 30 in the country. We were ranked 29th and everyone else was a lot lower than us. It was a war.”

This year’s state finals features 4A’s top four ranked teams. Floyd is ranked No. 3 after spending much of the season at No. 1.

“I think looking across the state this year, it’s a little bit different. No one knows who’s going to win the state championship,” Powell said. “This is the best team I’ve taken there. It’s a little different feeling than the last couple of years.”

There’s no doubt in the mind of Northview coach Scott McDonald, whose Knights were swept by Floyd Central last Saturday at the Seymour Regional, which team will come away with the hardware.

“They’re going to win, without question,” McDonald said of the Highlanders. “That’s the best high school team I’ve ever seen. Bart is just a phenomenal coach and he has a group of girls that are extremely strong, extremely talented and they work well together.”

Powell said he also believes that this may be the Highlanders’ year.

“I think if we play the way we’ve been playing the last three weeks, we have a legitimate shot,” he said. “I definitely think we’re going to win. The kids expect to win.”

Floyd Central senior Kirstin Kemppainen was a little more tempered in her prediction, but she also feels that Floyd can bring home its first state championship in volleyball.

“I haven’t seen every team in the state, so it’s hard to tell,” Kemppainen said of the 4A field. “But I think we have potential to be the best team in the state.”

Kemppainen said the Highlanders can’t think about winning a state championship until it does something it has failed to do the past two years.

“We need to get through the semis,” she said. “That’s what’s been holding us back every year. I think it’s just a bunch of nerves. We need to push through that.”

Floyd Central has met Elkhart Memorial twice in the last three years during the summer at Purdue University. At Purdue, the games were played by a clock. The game was over when the clock ran out.

Both times, the two sides were tied when the clock expired. Both times, Memorial won the tie-breaking point.

“Obviously, we’re going to have fight for every point. We have very similar programs,” Powell said of Memorial. “They’re a very scrappy team. We’re actually a bigger team than them. That’s unusual for us to be bigger than a team at the state level.”