Triton Volleyball: Blue Slam Make It Four Straight At Culver Sectional
CULVER — On paper, Triton’s volleyball sectional-opener with South Central looked like the de facto championship, but after Tuesday’s quarterfinal, the Blue Slam still had two matches to play.There would have been ample opportunity for a letdown after that back-and-forth four-setter, but instead Triton’s players only got better.
They swept through host Culver Community in three games Saturday morning, 25-6, 25-5, 25-20, then beat LaCrosse in the finals, 25-12, 25-5, 25-11, to earn a fourth straight Sectional 51 championship Saturday night.
“We didn’t have any emotional letdown. In fact, we had three great days of practice,” explained Triton head coach Gayle Perry. “That was perfect because they knew we were going to buckle down now, and they had plenty that they needed to work on. We took accountability for what happened in that match, and we moved on and got better.”
Triton’s core of seniors anchored the Blue Slam (16-16) throughout Saturday’s rounds.
Nicole Sechrist led in most categories with 23 kills over the two matches, as well as four aces and three solo blocks in each of the two tilts. Hannah Wanemacher collected 43 assists on the day, as well as two solo blocks in the championship, and Emma Ross served up a trio of aces in the semifinal. But the special ingredient to Triton’s convincing sweep through Saturday’s competition may have been the contributions of middle hitter Charlotte Morris, who continued to get stronger after sitting out three weeks with a knee injury, putting down 15 kills over the course of the day.
“The key to me for us is Charlotte. She’s in that second rotation, and if we’re going to win she’s got to play well,” said Perry. “She’s tall, she can even be more aggressive at the net, and we’re working on that. This weekend, I thought she made her presence known. That was the best she’s blocked in awhile. She didn’t get the double-digit kills, but some of that was because there weren’t long rallies — we’d just tip the ball and kill it.”
Of course, Triton’s newer players also made contributions, most notably in the stat lines junior libero Sydney Mussilli’s 21 total digs. The Blue Slam’s four returning seniors finished off a clean sweep of four straight titles at the tournament, but it was a first title for many in the Triton lineup Saturday.
“They were excited to get four. They wanted four. That’s a big statement — you’ve won every year that you’ve played,” said Perry of the returning seniors. “We only had four players that have ever played in sectional because Taytum (Hargrave), the fifth senior, has never played volleyball. She’s been in softball sectionals, but she’s never been in a volleyball sectional. We had freshmen winning their first sectional tonight; we’ve got three on our roster now. We’ve got two sophomores that won their two sectionals and a junior that won her first sectional.
“Like I tell the kids, I don’t want to build a team, I want to build a program. We keep filtering those young kids along because we want them to get a taste of this so that they’re going to want to do this too.”
Triton stays put for the regional round of the state tournament convening next Saturday at Culver Community. Morgan Township and Lakewood Park Christian open the four-team regional at 10 a.m., while the Blue Slam are scheduled for a rematch with Hoosier North Athletic Conference foe Pioneer in the late semifinal at noon. The championship is slated for 7 p.m.
The last time Triton played the Panthers back on Sept. 26, the Blue Slam lost in four close games, and that was without Musilli and with Morris only recently returned to the lineup. They’re looking forward to another crack at Pioneer and moving in the right direction. And Perry thinks there’s still more ceiling there for her squad.
“They just keep playing. They love the game. They want to keep getting better, and there’s more there,” she said. “We haven’t quite peaked, which is OK with me. I didn’t really want them to completely peak this weekend. It’s next weekend when I want them to peak. So we’re going to try for that. You can’t always control that completely, but there are certain things you can do in my experience that kind of holds them back a little bit, and you just take it off to really play at the top level that they can play.”