Central holds off Delta for volleyball victory

MUNCIE – Allyson Young was going for the ace. The Central senior outside hitter knew her team had just one chance at match point Thursday against Delta, and she wanted to capitalize on it. Young got she wanted.

She watched as the ball she served up hit the floor, then celebrated a 25-22, 25-18, 21-25, 25-23 volleyball victory against Delta in the first round of the Class 3A Delta Sectional.

"Oh my gosh, as soon as they called it in, emotions just went crazy," Young said. "I knew that I had got it for my team and for myself and it was just a great, great feeling."

The matchup pitted two top-five teams against each other, with Delta (27-6) ranked No. 3 in the class and Central (24-8) ranked fifth, and it was the fifth-ranked squad that was able to advance to Saturday.

Central coach Wes Lyon said his team spent considerable time working on blocking in preparation for the Delta matchup. The work didn't show up on the stat sheet, with the Bearcats logging four total blocks (led by E'Laisah Young with 1 ½), but Central's blocking did seem to slow down Delta's offensive attack. Lyon said he had seen flashes of his team's blocking prowess this season, but said Thursday was the first time he saw that performance throughout a match.

"We worked all week on getting in front of (Audrey) Woodin and (Kaylee) Nichols," Lyon said. "And I thought we did a much better job than the last time and really blocked awfully well. I thought our middles got outside of the pin all the time. To control those guys at all is a victory."

Delta coach Heidi Zickgraf said blocking wasn't the area that stuck out to her in the defeat. Instead, she credited the Bearcats' ball-control.

"Their ball-control was much, much better than ours," Zickgraf said. "So I think that was the difference, was ball-control."

Central led for the vast majority of the first and second sets, with Delta holding a few one-point edges early in the second set. The Bearcats put themselves in a position for the sweep, but the Eagles took the third set to ensure things would get more complicated.

The Bearcats then led 21-11 in the fourth set, but a 10-point Eagle run the tied the set, giving the Bearcats a narrow margin for error as they attempted to close out the match. As Central continues its tournament run, Lyon said working on closing out matches will be a priority.

"We've still got to figure that out," Lyon said. "It's a youth thing. It's a pressure thing. And I was just telling them, 'Delta's not going to quit.' And they proved that. They're a veteran team, they understand the game. So we have to learn to just be able to put the game away when it counts. But the fact that we recovered was great."

Micah Leavell led Central offensively with 21 kills, and E'Laisah Young had 19 kills. Nikki Marshall had 18 digs from the libero position for the Bearcats.

Camryn Campbell led Delta's offense with 13 kills. Teaghan Dishman and Nichols each had 16 digs.

With the victory, Central advances to play Blackford at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Wapahani and Hamilton Heights will meet at 11 a.m. Saturday in the sectional's other semifinal, with the championship match at 7 p.m.

Contact prep sports reporter Sam Wilson at (765) 213-5807. Follow him on Twitter @SamWilsonTSP.