Josie Hutchin of Shawnee sends the ball to Alaina Custer and Nevaeh White of Wapakoneta on Tuesday night at Kalida High School.
Photo by Lee Welch
KALIDA — After last year’s Western Buckeye League championship and a run to the regional tournament, this year’s Shawnee volleyball team has something to prove after losing several key pieces to graduation.
The Indians are on track to do just that, improving to 18-6 Tuesday by sweeping a familiar foe, WBL member Wapakoneta (9-15), 25-12, 25-18, 25-18, at Kalida High School in a Division III district semifinal.
Shawnee’s 5-foot-9 junior hitter Karleigh Hutchins, who is one of the returning pieces from last year’s team, led the Indians with 21 kills and two aces. Hutchins has had to take on more of a leadership role this year.
“I’ve stepped into a new role,” Hutchins said. “It’s exciting having new players come up to help and assist in any way, but I’ve had to take on a very big role in helping bring our team to have success, but everybody has played a huge part in getting us here.”
Hutchins and her squad finished the WBL season 8-1, just one game short of league champion Ottawa-Glandorf (9-0), but coach Brooke Hutchins says the pieces are coming together at the right time.
“We have Karleigh Hutchins, who was fortunate enough to play with that pretty tough team last year, so as a junior she brings a lot of experience up that way, but otherwise we are plugging in a lot of young athleticism,” coach Hutchins said.
“We’ve had a good season — we’ve tried to live and volley by the first serve-reception ball and defense. We know we have some girls who can load up between Karleigh and Gianna Upshaw—she’s a freshman, and (freshman) Josie Hutchins is athletic.
“Other than that, this team feels like they have something to prove. We’re not really revamping, but we’re just kind of reloaded. We have a lot of girls who play on national travel schedules and that really helps.”
In Tuesday’s win, Upshaw had 12 kills and four blocks, junior Liz Kinnear had three kills, senior Mackenzie Brickner had three blocks, and junior Addie Kriegel had two kills and three blocks.
Junior Sami Rettig served three aces and junior Emily McKissick and senior Maggie Jordan served two aces apiece.
The Indians started fast, closing the opening set on a 10-2 run, and then finishing off the final three points on kills by Karleigh Hutchins, Kinnear, and Upshaw.
However, in the second set, behind the shooting of Wapakoneta sophomore opposite hitter Kenzey Fullenkamp and blocking by sophomore outside hitter Dylan Paul, the Redskins pulled out to a 12-6 lead. Wapakoneta still led 18-15 after a kill by Paul.
But Shawnee closed on a 10-0 run, highlighted by four kills from Upshaw, and two aces by Karleigh Hutchins, who served the entire run.
However, coach Hutchins thought that set exposed her team’s occasional lack of focus.
“Today was about we got a little bit undisciplined at times and a little bit sloppy, missed too many serves and we have to tighten that up a little bit,” coach Hutchins said.
Shawnee closed the final set on four straight points behind the serving of Rettig, three of those scored on kills by Karleigh Hutchins and one on a solo block by Upshaw.
For Wapakoneta, senior outside hitter Kortney Fullenkamp had five kills, Kenzey Fullenkamp had four kills, Paul had three kills and three blocks, senior middle blocker Addi Fisher had three kills, sophomore setter Alaina Custer had four aces and senior libero Riley Szelagowski had two aces.
Shawnee, the district’s top seed, will return to Kalida on Thursday to face No. 2 seed Bowling Green (17-7), which swept WBL member Defiance (15-9), 25-19, 25-17, 25-19, in the nightcap on Tuesday.
“I think it just starts with the backcourt passes and serves and all that ball-handling stuff that we have to be able to control, but if we can get the ball into the hands of our experienced (players) like Karleigh and some of our other pieces, like Gianna, the freshman, we’ll be solid,” coach Hutchins said.
