The battle for hardware with Greenwood was a familiar one for the Center Grove volleyball team after defeating the Woodmen in the Johnson County Championship in straight sets. Center Grove’s hope for a repeat would be cemented with a three set victory (25-21, 25-13, 25-9), backed by a strong night from seniors Katie Egenolf and Avery Holubar.

“It means a lot because a lot of people didn’t think we would get here this season. We had a lot of people who were like “Oh, it’s Center Grove but they don’t have anyone this year. They’re not as good as they have been,” Holubar said. “Even different articles said how bad we were, and Greenwood was fueling the fire like they were posting on social media, Center Grove has no chance. It really fueled us to do better, play harder. We are Center Grove, but we are still as good as we have been.”

Center Grove went down early 3-0 but was able to mount a comeback taking the lead in the first set at 12-11 behind Egenolf and Holubar’s solid offensive plays, with the pair racking up a combined nine kills in the first set alone. The Woodmen kept it close, but Center Grove won the first set 25-21.

“I think it was a little bit of nerves,” Egenolf said. “Our team is very young, so when you have such a young team, they are going to be nervous. They are going to make mistakes. They are gonna be on edge, and I think after we pulled out that first set it was like, okay, even when we don’t play the best, we can still beat them. We have to just take a breath and play our game. We got too sped up. It made an impact. You can see when we played our volleyball they did not stand a chance.”

Greenwood was unable to rebound from the first set loss with Center Grove making quick work of the Woodmen in the second set, winning 25-13. Egenolf added to her kill count with four more, including the set point.

“The second set we got comfortable. We won the first set but it was only 25-21,” Holubar said. “We knew we had to play harder, but we were like we won but what can we do to win better. Every set we focused on something different, like the little mistakes in the second set where we were all like okay that can’t happen again.”

The third and final set was the Trojan’s most dominant as they jumped out to an 11-0 lead. Greenwood made a minor comeback to pull within 14-5, but it was too little too late after a key pair of Holubar kills boosted the Trojan’s confidence. Center Grove finished off the Woodmen 25-9.

“I would say [those kills] shut them down mentally,” Egenolf said. “At that point, they still had a little, oh we can come back and win. After that, I think they knew it was over and we knew it was over.”

Center Grove’s seventh consecutive and 33rd overall sectional title advances the team to the Bloomington North regional next Saturday to face Columbus East.