Volleyball round-up: Hatchets, Cougs fall, B-R moves on

PRINCETON — The Washington Hatchet volleyball season ended earlier than hoped, falling to Vincennes Lincoln (15-12) in four games on Thursday, 25-10,25-23, 17-25 and 25-14.

The first-round loss capped off a 17-win season for coach Brett Matteson in his return to coaching volleyball at Washington (17-13).

In the first set, Lincoln opened with a 4-1 lead and moved out to a 8-3 lead as WHS called its first time out. The run continued to 11-3 before Addie Messerli added a kill for WHS. Norah McMurray posted a block that cut it to 13-7. Vincennes picked up the next four points and WHS called its second TO. Lincoln was the first to 20, before Lincoln finished off the first game 25-10.

The Alices went up 6-2 in the second set when Danica Dowling added three kills in the middle to make it 5-6. Keagan Byrer keep it close with a kill at 6-7. VL built it out to 13-8, but Hatchet Ella Williams slowed the momentum with a kill.

With Adalyn Williams serving, WHS went up 15-14. The match was tied at both 17 and 18, and Dowling tied it at 20 with Shay Hawk serving. Lincoln picked up its third unforced service error of the set and WHS was back to within one, at 22-21. WHS pushed it to 23-24 but Lincoln too the set, 25-23.

WHS took an early 2-1 lead on and Ella Williams ace. Dowling made it 4-3 but Lincoln tied it at 5-all. Messerli added a smash to make it 7-5 and WHS went up 9-5 forcing VL to call its first time out. WHS pushed it to 12-5, their biggest lead of the night. WHS maintained the five-point lead at 15-10. WHS was the first to 20 in the third set, and held on for the 25-17 win and cut it to 2-1.

The third set started with 2-2 tie, but Lincoln went up 5-2. Kills from Jaea Cooper and Dowling tied it at 5-all. VL went up 10-7 and then 12-7. Lincoln ended up with seven straight points before WHS got the ball back at 14-8. Lincoln pushed it to 18-9, but WHS kept battling to 18-12. Lincoln moved to 21-14 and would take the win25-14. The win sets up a Saturday morning meeting with Princeton in the semi-finals

In the first game Jasper defeated Gibson Southern 3-1, and will move on to play Southridge on Saturday morning. Lincoln will move to play Princeton.

B-R 3, North Knox 0

SULLIVAN — After finishing last season in the Semi-State championship game, the 2025 Barr-Reeve Lady Viking volleyball team wants to take it one step further this year. On Thursday night at Sullivan, the Vikings opened the 2A tournament with a convincing 25-7, 25-5, 25-8 over North Knox. The Vikings will move into the semi-final round on Saturday, and will face Linton at 12:30 p.m.

The Vikings used big service runs by Haley Huff and Hallie Knepp in the first set, and forced a North Knox timeout at 12-4, and cruised to the first set 25-7 win behind the hitting of Marianna Vander Aa and Addison Jones.

Freshman JJ Knepp had a big second set for the Vikings, and had six kills, along with several aces in the second set. Barr-Reeve used an 11-1 run in the set to blow past the Warriors for the 25-5 victory.

Coach Tyler Schultheis was able to use all of the Lady Vikings on the Sectional roster in the third set, and Viking senior Lanie Graber pumped in five kills in the final set, and the Vikes used more big runs behind the service line to pull away for the 25-8 victory.

Barr-Reeve will enter Saturday with a 28-5 record, and the No.1 ranking in 2A. The winner of the BR/Linton game will play the winner of the Sullivan/South Knox game, which will begin at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning.

North Daviess 0, Shoals 3

LOOGOOTEE — Shoals came into the Class A volleyball sectional as one of the potential tourney favorites, and the Rox demonstrated their athletic prowess in a three-set sweep 25-10, 25-13, 25-18 versus North Daviess on Thursday evening at Loogootee’s Jack Butcher Arena.

The Jug Rox (23-4) sprinted to an early 8-2 lead and extended the advantage to 18-6 as the Lady Cougars struggled with serve receive throughout the opening set.

North Daviess clung tight in the middle set, leading as late as 11-10, before the Jug Rox rolled off seven straight points to force a time-out. The difference stretched the margin to 23-13 and then tallied the final two as well to take command.

The Cougs (12-17) led as late as 13-11 in the third stanza but could not generate any additional momentum as Shoals put together a 14-5 closing burst to proverbially punch their ticket to the semi-finals on Saturday morning.

Seniors Kambria Graber, Ella Woodruff, Jazmin Wagler, and Riley Peterson all played in their final match for ND and sixth-year head coach Jordy Graber.

Loogootee dominated Medora 25-3, 25-4, 25-3 in the opening contest on Thursday. The Lions (10-17) face off with Vincennes Rivet (6-13) in match one on Saturday while the Jug Rox are pitted against Orleans (17-10) in game two. The championship tilt is slated to start at 6 p.m. inside JBA.