Connersville rallies to reverse sweep Shelbyville in sectional championship match

BEECH GROVE – Shelbyville played a confident first set Saturday night in the championship match of Class 3A, Sectional 27.

And after a slow start to the second set, recovered to take a 2-0 lead over Connersville. But the Spartans started finding confidence – and strength at the net.

The Golden Bears were never in the third set and let the Spartans pull away in the fourth to set up a winner-takes-all fifth set.

And for the fourth straight set, Shelbyville fell behind early. The Golden Bears rallied to tie the score at 11-all but the Spartans took the final three points and the sectional title – its first since 2004 – 16-25, 24-26, 25-17, 25-17, 15-11.

“The hitters got going but it wasn’t the strong kills that got us,” said Shelbyville head coach Mike Turner. “It was putting it right over the top of our block short. We had trouble covering the short shots.

“We could never get them out of system and that’s what we needed to do. It just didn’t fall our way. Still, an amazing season.”

The Spartans (16-12) will face Tri-West (27-6) in the Monrovia Regional Saturday at 7 p.m.

The Golden Bears finished the season at 17-11. It was the program’s most wins in a season since 2020.

Shelbyville senior Hayden Ricketts serves Saturday night at the Beech Grove Sectional.

Shelbyville arrived at the Beech Grove Sectional with the most wins in the field, including 3-0 victories over the host Hornets and Connersville.

The Golden Bears cruised past Purdue Polytechnic Downtown, 25-6, 25-16, 25-9 in the semifinal round. The Spartans needed four sets to top Beech Grove, 22-25, 25-17, 25-12, 25-14.

In that semifinal win for Connersville, Kendyl Bottomley, a six-foot, two-inch junior, had 19 kills, three service aces and nine digs. She did not play in her team’s Aug. 26 loss at Shelbyville.

Bottomley’s back row passing and power at the net made a difference Saturday night in the sectional championship. With her team one set from elimination, she produced five kills, six digs and an ace in the key third set where the Spartans quickly built an 11-2 advantage.

Setter Taryn Tremain started pushing her hitters into more powerful striking positions and senior Stella Holmes (another 6-2 force at the net), junior Keagan Ritter and sophomore Hailey Pearson took full advantage of Shelbyville not getting into blocking position.

In set four, Holmes had a powerful spike and two blocks to help the Spartans open a 9-4 advantage. Ritter, Pearson, Bottomley and Tremain followed with point-ending rallies to open the lead to 15-8.

Shelbyville never recovered from there.

Connersville again sprinted to the lead in the fifth set race to 15 points. Tremain found Holmes at the net twice for emphatic spikes and a 4-1 lead.

Another Holmes spike made it 8-4 but Shelbyville dug in for one final battle.

Senior setter Addy Marshall sparked a 7-3 run with a tip kill. Lyla Wilson, another senior, found the floor to cut the lead to 10-8.

Jordyn Noe scored a point with a swing that caromed off the Connersville block attempt out of bounds. And when Connersville’s Sophie Wilson hit wide, the match was tied at 11-11.

The two teams exchanged points to make it 12-12 but Holmes beat the Shelbyville block to make it 13-12.

Ritter delivered again to set up match point.

And Wilson produced her only kill of the final set to end the match.

Bottomley finished with 17 kills, 20 digs and two aces. Holmes had nine kills and three blocks. Tremain collected 40 assists and 22 digs.

Noe led Shelbyville with 14 kills, 10 digs and four blocks. Wilson had 13 kills and seven digs.

Marshall finished with 31 assists and 26 digs. Addison Wooten had a team-high 28 digs.

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