The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/862179
E-10 Fall Sports Preview Wednesday, August 16, 2017 The Press-Dispatch VOLLEYBALL The Pike Central High School volleyball team, which began its season on Tuesday, Aug. 15, at Vincennes Lincoln, will host Washington on Wednesday, Aug. 16. The members of the team are, first row (l to r): Kylie Dawson, Peyton Sorgius, Brook Nalley, Morgan Whann, Shelbi Pipes and Becca Crow. Second row: Kenzie Dunn, Kylee Shoultz, Taylor Lamey, Alyssa Jenkins, Madison Sisk and Alex Traylor. Ed Cahill photo We offer: • Commercial Building Electrical Services • Electrical Service and Maintenance • Industrial Maintenance Projects • Residential Services Licensed, Bonded, Insured Master Electrician, 36 yrs. Experiance and have a Lifetime Labor Warranty. www.celcollc.net CALL 812-788-2058 or 812-309-1474 dedicated to service, quality and value • Go Chargers! YOUR SAFETY, OUR INTEGRITY, SINCE 1999 C & Z Roofing 1-812-582-2440 Cody Caldemeyer | Zach Langebrake Shingle • Metal FREE ESTIMATES c.zroofing14@gmail.com Good Luck Team! Four seniors lead netters for 2017 season By Ed Cahill Press-Dispatch Sports sports@pressdispatch.net The Pike Central High School volleyball team, which opened the 2017 sea- son at Vincennes Lincoln on Tuesday, Aug. 15, lost four seniors – opposite hit- ter Maya Frederick, setter Paige Kluemper and out- side hitters Alyssa Lee and Peyton Ruppel – from last year's squad that went 15 -17 overall and placed sixth in the Pocket Athletic Confer- ence at 3-5. Lee, one of six all around players named to the PAC's All-Conference Team last season, led the Lady Char- gers with 228 kills, includ- ing a season-high 15 twice – in a four-set regular-sea- son win at North Daviess and a five-set loss to Vin- cennes Lincoln in the open- ing round of the sectional tournament, while Kluem- per dished out a team-high 553 set-assists. Ruppel was second on the team in ace serves (43) and digs (529) and tied for third in kills (137), and Frederick was third on the team with 41 ace serves to go along with 187 digs. However, Pike Central head coach Tonya Walton re- turns four seniors – Brook Nalley, Shelbi Pipes, Pey- ton Sorgius and Morgan Whann. Last season, Nalley re- ceived honorable mention All-PAC accolades after plac- ing second on the team in kills (203), second in blocks (18), fourth in ace serves (37) and sixth in digs (121). As a sophomore, Nalley had 125 kills, 17.5 blocks, 104 digs and seven set-assists. Meanwhile, Shelbi Pipes was fifth in kills (45) and second in set-assists (61); Sorgius was fifth in ace serves (25) and second in digs (296). Also returning are ju- nior middle blocker Taylor Lamey, who tied for third in kills (137) and was first in blocks (18.5), and junior middle blocker Alyssa Jen- kins, who had seven kills and one block in limited var- sity action. Joining the varsity team for the first time are six ju- niors – Becca Crow, Kylie Dawson, Kenzie Dunn, Mad- ison Sisk, Kylee Shoultz and Alex Traylor. Walton said that one of the biggest changes taking place this season will be the move of Taylor Lamey from middle blocker to an outside hitter position. "We were a little kind of worried about moving her to the outside, but these last couple of weeks, she has re- ally, really adjusted well, and has had a lot more power be- hind the ball than she did in the middle, too," Walton said. "So we're really look- ing forward to see how she progresses on the outside as opposed to the middle this year." Nalley, meanwhile, and Jenkins will share playing time at the middle blocker position. "She has really, really got- ten control of her hits, and is just nailing the corners for me," Walton said. "She's re- ally kind of fine-tuned her hitting from last year." According to Walton, Nal- ley, who underwent surgery last December to repair a torn ACL in her left knee she sustained during the basket- ball season, is showing no ill effects from the injury. "Over the summer, she thought about it a lot, but I don't see her thinking about it at all anymore," Walton said. "She doesn't say, 'Oh, I can't move like that' or 'My knee's bothering me.' There's certain exercises and stretches and weight lifting and stuff that she can't do, but, other than that, no. I don't even notice that ACL any more. She moves well. It doesn't bother her, so she's doing really good with that." Dawson and Shoultz, ac- cording to Walton, are bat- tling for the other outside hitter position. "We're still working on those two, to kind of see what fits, what meshes best with the girls," Walton said."I also have Madison Sisk ... on the right side, if I need more blocking or more hitting on the right side." Also expected to see var- sity action at outside hitter this season is Dunn. Both Shelbi Pipes and Crow will set for the Lady Chargers, Walton said. "Shelbi set a little bit there at the beginning of the sea- son, and then she went to a right-side hitter," Walton said. "But now Shelbi's set- ting, along with Becca Crow." As a result, Walton said that she would be utilizing a 6 -2 offense – featuring six hitters, including two set- ters – rather than a 5 -1 of- fense with five hitters and one setter. "The 6 -2 is something I don't always do on varsity," Walton said. "It's been a long time since I've done that. But with Shelbi and Becca being so athletic and such good setters and such good hit- ters and such good blockers, I really feel like that could be an advantage for us." Whann will return as the team's libero, while Sorgi- us and Traylor will serve as defensive specialists on the back row. "Defensively, I'd say this is probably the strongest defensive team I've had in a while, between Shelbi, Bec- ca, Alex, Peyton and Mor- gan," Walton said. "I mean, awesome. They move very well. They all move very well as a back-row team to- gether." "When the other teams are hitting, we move very well to the ball," Walton add- ed. "When we get our hands on the ball, we're getting the ball to our targets, we're get- ting them to our setters, so we have an offense." Walton said that she was very pleased with her play- ers' versatility. "A lot of girls can play a lot of different roles if I needed it to happen that way," Wal- ton said. "I've got a couple of juniors that I'm working in to either be a DS for me if I needed them or even mov- ing up to the outside if I need them. I think I have a lot of players that I could move if we need to make changes later." Walton added, however, that she has been a little con- cerned about his team's abili- ty to receive the other team's serve. "Serve-receive is some- thing I was really concerned about at Summer Spike, and I feel like the last several weeks, we have really fine- tuned serve-receive," Wal- ton said. "I really feel like it's going to be a lot stronger than what we saw at Summer Spike." "We've really focused this week, specifically, on rota- tion, serve-receive, free balls – just really meshing those players together on the court all the time," Walton added. "And I'm really starting to see some of that harmony between them, and them working together and feeling like they know where each other are. So I really feel like that's coming together very nicely and, hopefully, they'll be ready for Vincennes (Lin- coln) on Tuesday." Walton noted that several Lady Chargers - including all four seniors – have been working on – and showing improvement – their jump serves. "I feel like the seniors are really confident in theirs," Walton said. "The juniors have really been working on their jump serves. They just get in a game and then they get worried and they think, 'Oh, I don't know if I should do it.' So I'm really hoping to really push them into jump serving because some of them have very good jump serves, and I think we'll get a lot of points off of them." With Jasper – which has seven straight sectional tournaments dating back to 2011 – moving up to Class 4A, Walton feels that the La- dy Chargers have a great op- portunity to compete for the sectional title this season. In 2017 and 2018, Class 3A Sectional 31 will consist of Pike Central, Princeton, Sullivan, Vincennes Lincoln and Washington. "Losing Jasper in the sec- tional, I feel like we have a very good shot at doing very well at sectional," Wal- ton said. "I think the seniors are starting to see that, and I think they're really start- ing to work toward think- ing about winning that. Not just playing in the sectional – winning sectional." The only sectional oppo- nent that Pike Central does not play during the regular season is Sullivan, which will be hosting the sectional tournament this year. "I don't know a lot about Sullivan and I don't know a lot about their volleyball pro- gram," Walton said. "But I hope to do really well in sec- tional, if not win it, and real- ly work hard toward improv- ing each year ... to build the program." The Lady Chargers' junior varsity team features seven juniors – Aubrie Dawson, Alexis Englert, Lily Fred- erick-Rice, Audrey Keepes, Karsyn Pipes, Emma Rus- sell and Shelby Sisk. The Lady Chargers' C- team features 13 freshmen – Bailey Brenton, Neeley Correll, Zoey Davis, Mallo- ry Hickey, Addie Johnson, Kaila Lamey, Chelsie Lester, Riley Morgan, Kenzie Pow- ell, Shelby Ridao, Makayla Thorne, Maddie Williams and Lily Willis. 12TH & MAIN STREETS, PETERSBURG 812-354-6000 FICKLIN AUTO SUPPLY GOOD LUCK CHARGERS! WE WISH YOU A VERY SUCCESSFUL SEASON! 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