NEW CASTLE — An outstanding season came to a close Saturday.
Pendleton Heights, winners of 27 matches and ranked No. 13 in the state’s Class 4A high school volleyball poll, was eliminated in the semifinal round of Sectional 9 at New Castle’s Chrysler Fieldhouse.
The Arabians finished 27-6 on the year, with five of the six losses coming to programs ranked in the top seven in the state.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
In fact, Sectional 9 was likely considered the strongest sectional in the state. The Arabians were part of a semifinal group that included No. 1 New Castle, the two-time defending Class 3A champion that moved up a class because of the IHSAA success factor rule; No. 2 Yorktown, the defending Class 4A champion; and No. 7 Mt. Vernon.
The four teams, all part of the Hoosier Heritage Conference, went into Saturday’s semifinal with a combined record of 110-11, with six of the losses coming to each other.
The Arabians lost to Mt. Vernon 3-0 on Saturday, by set scores of 25-14, 25-17, 25-14. It was their second loss to the Marauders this season.
New Castle beat Mt. Vernon in Saturday’s sectional championship
Arabians open tournament with win
Pendleton Heights had revenge on its mind in the Sectional 9 tournament opener against Greenfield-Central on Tuesday, Oct. 15.
One year ago, the Arabians beat the Cougars in the regular season, but lost to their Hoosier Heritage Conference rivals in the sectional championship.
This year, the Arabians again beat the Cougars during the season, but this time they made sure there would not be a repeat of 2018.
“They’re a solid team, and last year was a little motivation,” coach Blair Barksdale said of the Cougars. “We beat them in the regular season (last year) and they beat us in the sectional championship. So, that has definitely not gone away.
“We wanted to make sure we came in prepared. It’s hard to beat a team twice, so we wanted to make sure we were focused on this game and not looking into the future.”
Pendleton Heights jumped out early, held on in the second set, and finished it off in a 3-0 sweep. The set scores were 25-12, 25-23, 25-18, nearly identical to the regular season contest on Oct. 3, 25-12, 25-19, 25-22.
Sophomore Avery Ross had 17 kills spread out pretty evenly with six each in the first and third sets. Senior middle hitters Gracie King and Averi Lanman had 12 and 10 kills, respectively. King was part of five of the Arabians’ seven blocks.
Ross also had a team-high 18 digs. Setter Aubree Dwiggins had 34 assists.
“We passed really well in serve receive tonight,” Barksdale said. “We got into a lull in our offense in the second set and got a little tentative, but we battled. Once we got out of that funk we were in in the second set, we did a good job of coming back and being aggressive in the third set.”
