FAIRBORN – The Greenville Lady Wave season ended with a round two loss in OHSAA DIII tournament action to the once-beaten Tippecanoe Lady Red Devils.
“It’s a game of who can make the least errors, and we didn’t do that tonight, but super proud of these girls,” said Greenville assistant coach Jim Hardesty. “They put in a big effort; Brooke Schmidt and Chyanne Gibboney had a heck of a season this year, as did Kindyl Peltz. They have all done their job. We have to find a way of getting less errors.”
Playing their final career volleyball match for the Lady Wave were No. 5 Shyanne Gibboney, No. 18 Laci Shepherd, No. 19 Brooke Schmidt, and No. 21 Olivia Flatter.
The Lady Wave jumped out to a 3-1 first-set lead before the Tipp rebounded to win 25-10 and lead 1-0 on the night.
“They served the ball strong at us tonight,” Hardesty said of the 23-1 Lady Red Devils. “They beat a lot of teams like us.”
Greenville took an early 2-0 advantage in the second set of the match before dropping the set 25-16.
“We knew they were going to push the ball outside on both sides, and our middle girls had to go both ways,” Hardesty stated. “We didn’t do a very good job of closing the block on the outside. When they’re hitting the ball, they’re getting free swings.”
The third set saw Greenville’s all-time kills leader go to the bench with a bloody nose with the score tied at 3-3 before returning to the court late in the final set.
“The Lady Wave took early leads of 3-0, 5-3, and 6-4 before falling 25-14, concluding a winning 2024 season.
Looking back on the season, the Lady Wave struggled through many injuries to open the season 0-4 before putting together a 6-0 run and finishing the season 14-10 with an impressive 12-6 MVL mark.
Looking forward to the 2025 season, Coaches Shellie and Jim Hardesty have room for optimism with a good nucleus of returning players.
“We have a lot of starters out there besides Brooke and Shyanne that will be back,” Hardesty noted. “We’re losing two starters that play all the way around, but the other four out there will be back; we have a good nucleus coming back.”
“We expect big things out of Avery (Shipp); she’s a sophomore, still learning how to play the game and didn’t get much time last year as a freshman,” he added. “She got thrown into the fire this year. She’s going to have to lead in the middle.”
