ARCANUM – The Arcanum Lady Trojans volleyball team kept their perfect season intact with a 3-1 win over the Tri-Village Lady Patriots in WOAC play.
“When you’re at the top of the league, there are teams like Tri-Village, Mississinawa Valley, and Franklin Monroe who are going to come at you every single game, and any team in the conference is going to want to knock us off, and that is exactly what they were doing tonight,” said veteran Arcanum coach Jacie Holman. “I give them a lot of credit; they gave us a good run for our money tonight.”
“I was proud of my girls,” said Tri-Village coach Taylor Rawlings. “Arcanum has a great team; they have tough hitters. They are a force to be reckoned with, but I thought our girls did a nice job putting that fight up.”
The match between neighboring schools was filled with timeouts from both sides of the court, with the young Lady Patriots putting up a fight over the undefeated Lady Trojans.
Arcanum opened the first set play with a 13-9 advantage, bringing a timeout from the Tri-Village bench. The Lady Patriots closed within two at 16-14, with Arcanum taking a timeout followed by a Lady Patriots timeout falling behind, bringing a timeout trailing 22-16. Arcanum closed out first set play on a 3-1 run to go up 1-0 with a first set 25-17 win.
Tri-Village battled back, taking an early second set 10-6 lead, bringing a timeout from the Arcanum bench. The Lady Trojans used an 11-7 run to trail by a single point 16-17, sending the teams to the bench with a Tri-Village timeout. The Lady Patriots extended their lead to 24-20 before taking the set 25-22, evening the match at 1-1.
“We know it’s a rival; we want to come out and win,” Rawlings said, “but looking forward, we lost that consistency. When we had that consistency, it showed … we won.”
“Sometimes it’s our mental toughness,” Holman noted. “We do experience mental toughness, and then there are other times we seem to fall apart, and that’s where it was. We just expected after a good, solid first win that we could win again on the second set, and clearly, that wasn’t the case.”
Not taking the loss lighting, the Lady Trojans jumped out to an 8-3 advantage in the third set. Tri-Village closed the gap to trail 16-19, bringing a Lady Trojans timeout. Following the timeout, Arcanum went on a 6-3 run to win set No. 3, going away with a 25-19 win and a 2-1 lead.
“We know our goals for this season,” Coach Holman said. “We want to win another WOAC conference championship and go to districts. We will not go anywhere if we don’t win this set. “We came out, and they played our game, and they can do it when they want to. It’s a mental game right now for us.”
“Lexi has a nasty serve where she can give a good flow, and then it drops,” Holman said of senior Alexis Gibbons. “People don’t know where to move. We don’t often have to give her zones; she can just hit the zones herself, she can see the court well, she knows who may not be a good passer at that moment, and she goes right to them.”
Arcanum opened the fourth set with an 8-4 lead, bringing a Tri-Village timeout, but the Lady Trojans weren’t to be denied, winning the fourth and final set 25-18, taking advantage of Caroline Long, Mackenzie Byrne, and Alexis Gibbons going strong to the net for the conference win.
“When Caroline gets on top of that ball, you all better watch out because she is a force to be reckoned with,” Holman stated. “She can drill that ball, but she can also be a smart hitter. She knows where the open spots are, and she can tip it, or she can go deep corners.”
“Kenna Wilcox is great for us,” Rawlings said. “She’s not very tall, but she has that grit, fight, and desire to win. Lauren Porter is always happy; she is always willing to do whatever I ask her, and I appreciate that from her. She had some great blocks and some great hits, and she had a great game for us tonight.
Mackenzie Byrne and Caroline Long paced Arcanum with 13 kills each, and Alexis Gibbons chipped in 10 Lady Trojans kills.
Byrne led Arcanum with 30 assists and Matty Noe with 15. Byrne led the Lady Trojans with 20 digs, followed by Grace Garbig and Fry, who each made 16 digs.
“We have to stay disciplined, which is our focus right now,” said Coach Holman. “If we come in on an off night, we must be prepared to work harder.”
“Arcanum is a little more experienced than we are, a little more experience in winning the WOAC,” Rawlings said. “For us, it’s gaining that consistency and experience. Right now we’re young, at one point I had six sophomores on the court. We’re improving, and I am proud of them for taking Arcanum four sets.”
With the win, Arcanum ups its record to 9-0 overall and 5-0 in conference play. Tri-Village drops to 5-5 overall and 3-2 in the WOAC.
