Parker Mischler
BY TRAVIS DAVID
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The Sullivan volleyball team did not have much time to think about their first loss of the season suffered on Wednesday. Twenty-four hours later, the Lady Arrows hit the court once again with a road match against former conference rival South Vermillion.
The sour taste in the mouths of Sullivan resulted in bad news for the Wildcats.
The Lady Arrows improved to 7-1 on the season with a 25-11, 25-9, 25-14 thumping of the hosts.
“We played our butts off,” Arrows’ coach Dillon Taylor said of the bounce-back win. “The girls really came out determined to play well and respond from the loss.”
Senior Parker Mischler once again powered the Sullivan offense. Mischler put away nine shots at the net in addition to four digs.
Jacie Wilson and Lexi Grindstaff also proved to be hard to handle on the attack as the pair of Lady Arrows combined for 13 kills, led by Wilson’s seven.
In much of the Arrows previous seven matches, slow starts hampered the team, especially in Wednesday’s loss at Greencastle. It wasn’t an issue on Thursday as Sullivan took control of the match early in sets and never backed off the gas pedal.
“We did a great job of coming out at the start of every set tonight and built a lead,” the Arrows’ coach stated.
Taylor was even more impressed with the way his team performed at the service line. Led by Ella King’s five aces, Sullivan served up 15 aces from the line as a team. The team only misfired on four shots from the service line all match.
“Serving was huge for us,” Taylor stated. “If we are going to be successful in the long term, we need to have more serving nights like this.”
Wilson added four aces from the line, while Jaylen McCammon and Izzie Jenkins both had two aces.
Jenkins led the team with 11 digs and freshman Rachel Eslinger added 10. Eslinger also handed out 10 assists, while King led the team with 13 helpers.
Sullivan (7-1) travels to Terre Haute North on Monday.
The Patriots handed the Arrows their first loss of the season last year.
