Triton Central opens semistate volleyball tournament against red-hot Eastern (Pekin)

FAIRLAND – Two volleyball programs fresh off celebrating their first regional championships will meet Saturday afternoon in an Elite Eight match at Bedford North Lawrence High School.

In the Class 2A semistate, top-ranked Barr-Reeve (30-5) takes on No. 10 Greencastle (30-4) at 10 a.m. Triton Central (24-8) follows against No. 6 Eastern (30-5) in the second semifinal.

The semistate championship match is scheduled for 7 p.m.

GIANT fm (95.5 fm, 1520 am, 106.3 fm or online at giant.fm) will broadcast the semifinal match with the pregame show scheduled for approximately 11:30 a.m. If the Tigers reach the championship, GIANT fm will air that as well.

Triton Central avenged a regular-season loss at Heritage Christian at the sectional to secure its first championship since 2020. One week later, the Tigers tore apart Northeastern, 25-18, 25-10, 25-18, for their first regional title.

First-year head coach Lyndsey Skipton leans on senior setters Maryrose Felling and Audrey Darlage to make sure the Tigers are in their game plan.

“Maryrose set last year for them. Audrey hadn’t set a whole lot for them in the past but overall, it was about teaching them how I expected them to play the game and what our offense needed to look like,” said Skipton, who was Shelbyville’s head coach from 2010-2013 and led the Golden Bears to two sectional titles and a regional championship in 2011. “We did a lot of experimenting with them. We did run a 6-2. They both ran 5-1s at some point throughout the season for different reasons. We kind of settled into this situation where I call it a 5-2 where they sub for each other. One (Felling) is the front row and one (Darlage) is in the back row. They both have different strengths and different weaknesses. I think they complement each other pretty well.”

Together, Felling and Darlage have combined for more than 850 assists this season. For Felling (photo), who just committed to play college basketball at the University of Indianapolis, Skipton’s knowledge of the sport has strengthened Felling’s love of the game.

“I remember our first talk with coach Skipton … the setter is the quarterback; the setter is the point guard. It’s all the same thing,” said Felling, who relished the comparison to a point guard role. “You are running the entire offense. It puts more pressure on me but I love setting.”

What Felling lacks in experience, she has never played club volleyball due to her basketball commitments, the senior makes up for in competitiveness.

“It’s definitely hard because I don’t practice (setting) as much in the offseasons,” explained Felling. “I think our new coach has helped me so much. I couldn’t even explain how thankful I am that we have a coach that can help me learn how to set and learn how to run an offense in a different sport.”

Rotating with another setter under a new coach’s direction added more difficulty to the role.

“I think at first it was tough because every hitter is going to have two (rotations) with me and one with (Audrey) or two with her and one with me. I think it was rough for them to have to adjust to Audrey coming in or me coming in. Audrey and I practice so much now and do so many setter reps, I think we are starting to have the exact same sets.”

The setters have three dynamic hitters in their rotations with senior Gwyn Williams (284 kills) and juniors Lucy May (340 kills) and Addison Gibbs (195 kills). Felling and Darlage also can rely on junior Savanna Plew (94 kills) and sophomore Ashlyn Hittle (110 kills).

A setter’s best work comes from on spot passes from the libero and fellow back row teammates. Sophomore Alaina Darlage leads the Tigers in digs (336) from her libero role. Williams, the only Triton Central player that does not rotate off the floor, has 299 digs.

In addition, Audrey Darlage (225 digs), Estelle Gearlds (34 digs) and Kate Collier (109 digs) will be crucial Saturday in Bedford to stifle Eastern’s offense.

Freshman Maecy Cord rounds out the rotation as a serving specialist.

Triton Central’s first semistate challenge is an Eastern squad that has not lost a set since Sept. 24 and is brandishing a 14-match win streak.  

The Musketeers (photo) captured their first regional title Saturday with a 25-9, 25-4, 25-11 rout of Southwestern (Hanover). After winning the first set, Eastern rolled off 18 straight points to start set two.

“They have a big hitter and a really good setter that has a lot of kills too,” said Felling. “I think it will be really tough.”

Senior Addison Smith leads the Eastern offense with 878 assists and 165 kills. No other player has more than 60 assists.

The majority of the offense goes through senior Avery Smith, who has 487 kills.

“From what I can tell, most of their sets go to that No. 1 (Avery Smith),” said Skipton. “If we can at least contain her or slow her down, we increase our chances dramatically.”

Triton Central would like to force senior Sidney Burton (247 kills), junior Leah Hobson (118 kills) and sophomore Ashton Johanningsmeier (105 kills) to be more responsible for scoring points.

Burton and the Smiths have combined for 225 service aces. Junior Emma Brawner leads Eastern with 82 total blocks.

Skipton’s goal is to apply pressure to a team that has not been challenged much down the stretch of its schedule.

“Looking at their schedule, they haven’t lost a set in a long time,” she said. “To me that is telling, how are you going to handle adversity. I feel we have already had that, especially in the sectional.”

Eastern has not lost since falling three times on Sept. 20 against New Albany (2-0), Castle (2-1) and Silver Creek (2-0). Its only other losses are to the two programs who played in the 2024 semistate championship – Brownstown Central (3-0 on Aug. 19) and Barr-Reeve (2-0 on Sept. 6).

The Musketeers have not played a five-set match all season.

Barr-Reeve vs. Greencastle

Barr-Reeve is chasing its fourth state championship in 13 years but have not hoisted the championship trophy since 2020.

The Vikings (photo) are led by senior Addison Jones, who collected career kill and career dig No. 1,000 this season.

Jones and freshman Joslyn Knepp each are over 300 kills with senior Lanie Graber just short of the mark.

Jones and junior Lora Graber are the top servers with 59 aces apiece and lead the team in digs.

Hallie Knepp, a junior, is closing in on 1,000 assists this season.

The Vikings struggled early with losses to Center Grove (3-0), Castle (3-1) and North Posey (3-2) before winning 12 straight matches. Barr-Reeve lost a five-set match to Evansville North in mid-September and was swept by Indianapolis Cathedral in mid-October.

Greencastle (photo) has a veteran squad led by seven seniors that captured the program’s first regional championship since 1998.

The Tiger Cubs have won 14 straight matches since suffering a pair of losses on Sept. 20 to West Lafayette (2-1) and Danville (2-0). The loss to Danville was its second this season after falling 3-1 on Aug. 18.

The only other team to defeat Greencastle this season was Northview (3-2) on Sept. 17.

Senior setter Allie Landry notched career assist No. 2,000 earlier this season. Senior Makenzie Creviston and freshman Sophia Gooch benefit the most from Landry’s sets with just over 300 kills apiece.

Seniors Keely Amis and Rhoan Amis each are over 150 kills.

Landry also leads the team in aces, with over 100 this season, and is third in digs.

Senior Meilani York lead the team in digs (398) with Gooch close behind.

Also in the rotation will be seniors Ellie Knuth and Haylee Owens.

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