BROWNSTOWN
Brownstown Central High School recognized its volleyball team for its 2019 Class 3A state championship, and then the Braves took care of business by defeating Silver Creek 25-20, 25-13, 32-30 to remain unbeaten in the Mid-Southern Conference in 2020.
The BCHS athletic department unveiled banners in the gymnasium honoring the volleyball team, plus individuals Winter Holman Sporleder for being the 1,600-meter champion at the 2000 girls state track and field meet and Chris Baker for being a golf medalist at the 2003 state tournament.
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Holman was in attendance, while public address announcer Brian Nuss announced Baker was playing in a Professional Golfers Association tournament in California.
Senior Kendra McCory was a member of last year’s championship team that went 32-5. She said she enjoyed seeing the new banners.
“I’m very humbled and honored to represent our community like that to see that sign up on the wall,” McCory said.
The first set was tied at every point through 7-7 before the Braves went on a 10-4 run to lead 17-11 on a kill by Jennifer Pence. The Braves finished the set on back-to-back kills by Kelsey Wischmeier and McCory.
Brownstown started off stronger in the second set, taking an 8-3 lead on an ace by Myka Keltz and recorded kills by Pence and McCory to lead 19-8. Set point came on a net error by the Dragons.
The Braves held a 20-17 lead in the third set before Silver Creek rallied to lead 22-20. McCory’s kill tied the score at 25 to force overtime.
The lead changed hands five times before the Dragons had an attacking error to end the match.
Braves coach Jennifer Shade said her team (10-6, 4-0 league) is still behind offensively because of having to play two weeks without setter Reagan Nuss, who was quarantined because of COVID-19. Nuss, a junior, returned to play last week against New Albany.
The coach said she felt her team had an upper hand at the net by coming up with 37 kills, as McCory was 30-31-12, Pence was 22-26-12 and Kayla Guthrie was 22-25-9. She said the Braves need to become more accurate serving.
The Braves were 73-79-5 serving with Nuss 19-19-2, Keltz 11-12-1 and Guthrie 13 for 13.
“I felt like we really learned how to push ourselves and to keep pursuing the game, pursuing the ball,” Guthrie said. “We really worked hard, we never gave up and the girls had a lot more energy and the girls really became aggressive and started going after more balls then they usually would.
“Since we recently got our setter back, it’s been nice to have a fast-draw offense, and we’ve been able to run a lot more plays and just work more with the ball. I think we still need to bring a lot more energy, but the girls have been very aggressive and just keep getting better with defense and offensively.”