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Arcanum
sophmore Abby O’Donnell goes up for a kill Saturday against
National Trail. The Lady
Trojans advanced to the second round of the
sectional tournament, beating the Blazers in four sets.
CNO Photo by
George Starks.
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Arcanum survives
tournament scare
FM, T-V out; Greenville, Versailles advance
By George Starks
BROOKVILLE - No team wants to be eliminated from state tournament play,
especially at the high school level and no one wants to bow out in the
first round of sectionals.
It was a sluggish Arcanum team that took the floor at Brookville
Saturday in the opening round of sectional play against National Trail.
In games that see-sawed back and forth, the two teams split the first
two sets by identical scores of 25-21. The Lady Trojans squeaked out
the third set 25-18 in a match that was much closer than the score
indicates.
“It was touchy the whole match in my opinion,” said Arcanum coach Terri
Day. “When it comes to playing in tournament, it’s a different
atmosphere and it’s hard to get them going at first.”
Enter the O’Donnell factor as the difference maker.
Through the first three games, Abby O’Donnell, with her unique style of
serving, tallied nine points with five aces. In the fourth set, the
sophomore was zeroed in, accounting for 11 of the 25 points needed with
five more aces as the Trojan funk stopped with a 25-5 drubbing of the
Blazers.
“Abby strung together all those serves and that made a big difference,”
Day said. “I think her style just got into Trail’s head and it makes
for a big hole to climb out of if you’re Trail.”
Up 6-2 in the fourth, O’Donnell strung together all 11 of her points in
the set in a row, giving the Trojans a commanding 17-3 lead when her
serve was broken.
“I really don’t know how hard it would be to receive that serve,” Day
said with a laugh. “Even in practice, there was a little bit of a
superstition because she didn’t want anybody touching the ball while
she had the string going. The way I see it, whatever works, we’re going
to take. It’s a different approach and it works so we‘re going to keep
it.”
With the match knotted at 1-1, the message Day sent to her troops
before the third set was a simple one.
“I told them to wake up, they’re not going away,” Day said. “We had to
play fundamental volleyball which we weren’t doing and we weren’t
talking. Once we started talking and playing our game, things changed.”
With the win, the Trojans will face Milton-Union Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
In other Darke County action Saturday, Versailles thumped Dunbar 15-5,
15-7, 155 to advance to play West Liberty Salem Thursday at 7:30 at
Brookville. In the D-IV sectional at Tipp City, Franklin Monroe fell to
Catholic Central 25-8, 25-11 and 25-7, while Tri-Village was also
eliminated, losing to Newton, 25-15, 25-14, 25-13.
In New Carlisle. Greenville advanced with a win over Kenton Ridge in
five sets, The Wave will tangle with the winner of Urbana-Trotwood ,
Tuesday at 6 p.m.
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