Advantage Gremlins

The battle for volleyball supremacy in the Kaysinger Conference was decided at the net on Tuesday night.

The Sacred Heart Gremlins grabbed early leads in both games, held off comeback attempts by the Cole Camp Bluebirds, and grabbed a 26-24, 25-18 win in a match featuring two undefeated conference teams.

Sacred Heart (17-1-2, 6-0) used a well-rounded attack at the net, spreading the ball around to many different hitters and challenging every Cole Camp hit with a pair of blockers.

Meghan Stratton led the hitters for the Gremlins, recording 10 kills to go with her 10 assists, five service points and six digs.

Gremlins coach David Fall was pleased with the way his setters made decisions and spread the ball around to a variety of hitters.

“We moved it around well tonight,” he said. “The game management of the setters was very good.”

The first game was close in the early stages until Sacred Heart began to pull away and took a 21-15 lead on a kill by Courtney Curtiss. Cole Camp (12-7, 5-1) turned to Chelsea Chamberlin and her power brought the Bluebirds back into the game.

After an ace by Shanea Viets and a Gremlin error, Chamberlin boomed a kill to cut the lead to 22-21. Viets followed with another ace and the game was tied.

The teams traded points until Stratton ended game one with a kill down the line.

“She had a real good night,” Fall said of Stratton. “Some of them balls, I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the receiving end. She just hit the heck out of them.”

Cole Camp coach Brian Rice liked his team’s effort, but knew the early deficits would be tough to overcome.

“We were able to do some things,” Rice said. “When we pass the ball and can get a set, then we can hit it with just about anybody. I thought we had some nice comebacks against a really solid team, so I’m very pleased with that.

“The part obviously that I’m not pleased with is the four or five free points that we game them, and we can’t do that on a championship night.”

The Gremlins raced out to a 14-4 lead in the second game before the Bluebirds began to chip away at the lead again. Chamberlin, Emily Schlesselman, and Erin Rice pounded out kills that enabled Cole Camp to get back within 20-17, but the Bluebirds could get no closer.

Stratton and Curtiss led the final Gremlins charge that closed out the final game and kept the perfect season alive for Sacred Heart.

“I’m not going to say anything bad about our effort ’cause I thought our kids did a great job and did a great job hanging in there,” Rice said. “You can get caught watching Sacred Heart, you know, and I don’t think our kids did that. We did battle the whole night. We just couldn’t overcome ourselves.”

Laura McMullin, who was aggressive at the net, finished with seven kills, three kill blocks, 12 service points and six digs, while Paige Shipley chipped in with seven kills and 14 assists. Curtiss added 12 digs for the Gremlins.

For Fall and the Gremlins, only one game stands between them and an undefeated regular season title to go with a conference tournament title. Sacred Heart plays at Lincoln on Thursday to wrap up the conference season.

“We’ve guaranteed at least a share of the conference trophy, which is the third year in a row. That’s a very nice accomplishment for the girls,” Fall said.