DAILY JOURNAL SPORTS CORRESPONDENT
Edinburgh volleyball coach Tina Bottroff is up for the challenge.
Her team is, too. Bottroff said the Lancers are excited to play Class 4A No. 6 Center Grove in the Johnson County Volleyball Tournament semifinals at 5:30 p.m. today at Greenwood Community High School.
Greenwood, which topped Indian Creek on Wednesday, will face Franklin in the other semifinal. The championship and consolation finals will follow.
“We know they are always a great club,” said Bottroff, whose Lancers are 18-5. “It’s a good gauge to see where we are as a team.”
Edinburgh advanced by knocking off Whiteland 25-18, 25-19, 25-22 in a first-round tournament match at Greenwood on Wednesday night. Greenwood advanced to the other semifinal by topping Indian Creek 25-18, 25-18, 25-23.
Bottroff was pleased with the Lancers’ passing for the most part.
“We’ve got a pretty good defense,” Bottroff said. “We’re proud of our passing and are able to set the ball up. Give Whiteland some credit because they fought us pretty hard.
“We kept hitting away and got the job done in the end.”
The Lancers had to rally from a 19-16 deficit in the third set.
“Our passing got out of hand for little awhile,” Bottroff said. “We got back in sync, and we were able to put the ball away. That was key for us in the last set.”
Whiteland coach Kristen Estridge saw some positives.
“We’ve have our strong moments and just some inexperience,” said Estridge, whose team’s dropped to 5-21. “We’re young. We’ve got to keep working every day. You’ve got to keep at it.”
Indian Creek coach Andrea Knight liked how her team finished in the loss. The Braves rallied from an 18-11 deficit in the third set to take a 23-22 lead before the Woodmen closed out the match.
“We definitely pulled out heart in the last set and fought for it,” said Knight, whose team is 12-12. “We came out strong, struggled a little bit and then came back. We can take this loss and propel into the rest of our games and into sectionals.”
“(The Woodmen) didn’t expect to be as strong as we developed.”
Greenwood assistant coach Kate Busch, who is serving as head coach because head coach Amanda Ratliff recently had a baby, said she was pleased her team was pull out the third set so they didn’t have to go another set.
“We wanted to get out fast, make sure to get home and rest because the girls have two games (tonight),” Busch said. “We didn’t play quite up to our potential (Wednesday), but we were able to stick it out and come out with a win.
“We’re excited to play Franklin because we just lost last week in a close game, so we want to show them what we’ve got.”
Senior middle blocker Oliva Stilley led the Woodmen (13-10) with 12 kills. In addition, sophomore setter Hannah Anderson added 22 assists and nine digs and senior defensive specialist Hannah Schober added 13 digs.
