Aug. 17—For one set of high school volleyball Monday night, host West Vigo looked like a team with a 3-21 record a year ago while visiting Parke Heritage looked like a team that won a sectional in 2020.
Before long, however, both teams realized their identities had changed, and the Wolves had to hold off the surging Vikings in four sets by scores of 25-11, 25-21, 16-25, 25-23.
After threatening to seize momentum before losing the second set, the Vikings grabbed it by the throat midway through the third set — the announcement that the concession stand was closing was just a coincidence — and looked ready to take the match to a fifth set until Parke Heritage scored the last four points of the match.
“I told them after game one that all summer they’d played better than that,” West Vigo coach Casey Lee said of the Vikings. “In game three we showed up and did what we needed to do.”
“[The Wolves] got a little excited [after going up 2-0],” Parke Heritage coach Samantha Gregg said.
The first set/game was close only until Parke Heritage junior Hailey Liebrandt had a big service run that included three aces, expanding a 6-5 lead for the visitors to 12-5. It was still 14-9 but the Wolves closed out the set with an 11-2 run, helped by several Viking mistakes.
“First-game jitters obviously took place,” Lee said later. “Game one we were a little bit scrambled.”
West Vigo sophomore Maddie Bradbury — who wears No. 5, same as Liebrandt — started the second set with back-to-back-to-back aces and the Vikings led most of the way. Parke Heritage had several rallies, but a kill and a block by Emma Fulford blunted two of them, and a tip by Ashley Dunkin had the home team up 19-17. Then it was time for a service run by Megan Wittenmyer of the Wolves, and seven straight points had the visitors on their way to their 2-0 lead.
Parke Heritage jumped out to leads of 7-2 and 9-3 in the third set, and it was 10-5 when the concession announcement was made. But then West Vigo scored six straight points — Dunkin had three kills in that burst — and grabbed the lead. It was a 13-13 set before the Vikings scored three in a row, and from 17-15 the Vikings put it away as Piper Beeler had a big service run fueled by three kills from Riley Dierdorf.
West Vigo kept its momentum going to take an 11-6 lead in the fourth set, but Hannah Thurman — moved up from the Parke Heritage JV to replace a player out with illness — had two kills and Wittenmyer an ace as the Wolves crept back in it. The Vikings had leads of 14-10 and 16-13, but Parke Heritage got three straight points to take a 20-19 lead.
West Vigo countered with two straight points for a 21-20 lead, and answered a kill by Kristen Wood of the Wolves with two more points, the second an ace by Jayci Scott. But at 23-21 the Vikings committed a setting error, Grace Ramsay tied the score with a kill, and the Vikings had back-to-back hitting errors as the visitors held on.
“You get 18 [substitutions per set], and we used just about every one,” Gregg said after the match. “Girls stepped up and played positions they don’t usually [play], and did a great job. We had a girl out sick, but Hannah Thurman stepped up.”
After losing some key players from last year’s sectional championship team, Gregg admitted “We weren’t really sure what to expect, and until you get in a game you don’t really know what you have. But there’s lots of talent, and we’ll put it all together and make it work.”
“We can’t focus on the loss tonight,” Lee said. “We have to focus on what we can do [Tuesday at Clay City].”
Parke Heritage=25=25=16=25
West Vigo=11=21=25=23
Highlights — For Parke Heritage, Bethany Wilson had 18 assists, 7 points and an ace; Jenna Brown 13 kills, 8 points and an ace; Megan Wittenmyer 3 kills, a block, an assist, 14 points and 3 aces; Grace Ramsay 7 kills, 4 blocks, an assist, 7 points and an ace; Emma Norman 11 assists, 2 points and an ace; Kristen Wood 7 kills, 2 blocks, 4 points and an ace; Hailey Liebrandt 2 assists, 8 points and 3 aces; Hannah Thurman 8 kills and an assist; Hannah O’Brien 2 blocks; and Kailyn McKinney an assist.
For West Vigo, Jayci Scott had 29 digs, an assist, 12 points and 3 aces; Riley Dierdorf 13 kills, 13 digs, 6 points and 4 aces; Maddie Bradbury 9 digs, 8 assists, a kill, 9 points and 6 aces; Lailynn Bigger 16 assists, 7 digs, a kill, 4 points and 2 aces; Piper Beeler 11 digs, 3 assists and 8 points; Ashley Dunkin 8 kills and 6 digs; Keegan Beeler 5 kills, 3 digs and an assist; Carlea Funk 2 kills, 2 digs, a block, 2 points and 2 aces; and Emma Fulford 4 kills, 2 assists, a block and a dig.
JV — Parke Heritage won 18-25, 25-23, 15-11.
Next — West Vigo (0-1) plays Tuesday at Clay City. Parke Heritage (1-0) plays Thursday at Attica.