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Northview sweeps Clay City in annual Pink Game
On Monday at 7 a.m., the official X account, formerly known as Twitter, of Northview’s volleyball team put up a post stating the importance of the annual Pink Game against cross county rival Clay City later that night.
The reason? Both teams come together to honor and support those who have or are currently battling breast cancer. It also brings the entire community into one gym, making it one of the biggest stages either program will play on throughout the season.
That made Northview’s 3-0 sweep of Clay City even more satisfying, said head coach Scott McDonald, who noted his group played fundamentally sound the entire evening.
“The crowd was electric. I thought our kids fed off of that at the beginning, and that really set the tone for the whole night,” said McDonald. “We hit really well, and our serving and passing was also really good. I thought, fundamentally, we played pretty well, which, in a big environment, can be hard to do sometimes. Our kids really responded to the crowd and the moment.”
One of the major reasons the Class 3A No. 3-ranked Lady Knights scare the bejeebers out of opposing teams is their ability to put shots away – and do so with high-powered swings – at the net.
Northview did that on a consistent basis on Monday, recording 34 kills.
“They are very good,” said Clay City head coach Asieava Jeffers of Northview’s front row. “We knew that by [watching film], but it is even more true in person.”
But Northview also mixed in plenty of points out of the serve-receive portion of its game, which included a match-opening ace by Alex Strahla.
The Knights had six different players – Strahla, Karsyn Buck, Bradee McDonald, Keira Lucas, Morgan Oellig and Brinley Deakins – record at least one ace for a total of 11 in the three-set sweep. McDonald said that was an area his coaching staff identified as one they wanted to target on Monday. He was pleased with their execution.
“We wanted to serve it extremely aggressively to get them out of their system,” said McDonald. “They have some nice hitters, and their libero [Ellie Stoelting] was really good as well. So, we thought if we could be aggressive with our serves, we could get them into some trouble and set up our defense and run our transition stuff.”
Northview won the first and second sets by respective scores of 25-7 and 25-9 and then finished off the win with a 25-14 third set victory. And while the Eels were disappointed with the final results, Jeffers said playing a team like Northview will only make them better in their quest to continuously build a consistent contender.
“It’s tough playing a team like that, but I like playing teams like them because it gives our girls the chance to see what they could be and what they can do,” said Jeffers. “This gave us some reminders of the importance of fundamentals. Like, you have to cover your blocks, and you have to be able to move and shift your defense.”
Instead of spending much time in the locker rooms after the end of the match, both McDonald and Jeffers mingled with the crowd that packed the Eel Dome on Monday. They wanted to thank them for supporting their teams, but more importantly, for helping them raise money – Clay City High School and Northview High School donated a $1,500 check to P.I.N.K. of Terre Haute – and awareness for those fighting breast cancer.
“This is something [Northview assistant coach] Kaley [Pettiford] and I were talking about earlier tonight, but she was the one that actually got this all started back when she was playing for me. She said, ‘Coach, we need to do something for breast cancer.’ She did it and now it’s grown into this event,” McDonald said. “I thought Clay City did a really great job of getting everything together. It all looked nice. I just think this is something that’s really nice for these kids to give back to their community. Tonight was an excellent example of what our community can do when we come together.”
“This is always a very special night. Our gym looked great. Everybody works hard to make sure that’s decorated and that everyone feels honored,” said Jeffers. “It’s especially special to us because we have some parents that have had breast cancer before or are currently battling it, so this [disease] hits home for us. I thought our girls did a really good job in taking joy in the night and coming together to honor them.”