BROOKVILLE – The No. 4 seed Arcanum Trojans defeated the No. 13 seed Dixie Lady Greyhounds in OHSAA DIII first-round tournament play in straight sets.
“A win is a win, it’s maybe not the best win but we’ll take it at this point,” said Arcanum coach, Jacie Holman. “I hope to keep going on a run but it wasn’t our prettiest that we’ve played.”
After an Arcanum 0-2 start the Lady Trojans senior, Emilie Fout went to the serving line for a 5-0 run giving Arcanum an early 5-2 lead that would balloon to 12-3 in a 25-13 first set win.
“Our serves are hard to defend,” Holman noted. “When we can go on those runs we’re just fine.”
Set No. 2 had Arcanum getting a double-digit lead at 14-4 on its way to a 25-14 win for its second double-digit win of the night.
The Lady Trojans grabbed an early 6-2 third-set advantage before going on cruise control allowing the Lady Greyhounds back in to pull with one trailing 10-9 bringing Arcanum’s lone timeout of the night.
“We have talked about that cruise control all year,” Coach Holman stated. “I used to talk to my girls about we started slow and then we kind of got in the groove but now I feel like we’re starting faster and then we get in this cruise control.”
“I told them Dixie is not going to come out and just lay down because we’re a four-seed,” she added. “They’re going to come and they brought their game – they gave me a little scare that third set.”
Dixie took a 13-12 lead before Arcanum found its groove again using a 13-3 scoring run to close out play on the night and win the final set 25-16 to advance in tournament play.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen but I am proud of my girls that we persevered – we kept going,” said Holman. “At this time there is no guarantee tomorrow so pushing through I’m proud.”
“Our middle really focused on pressing over the net and watching shoulders to block that ball,” Holman added. “I was impressed overall with all of our blocking game. I thought our outside and right-side hitters did a wonderful job, especially setting that block so that our middles could close it and get us a block up there.”
With the 3-0 win over Dixie, Arcanum advances on the tournament trail to face No. 17 seed Springfield Northeastern in a Saturday matchup at Brookville High School, October 21st with a 1 p.m. start time.
