Published: September 16, 2008 12:04 am      

PREP ROUNDUP: Eastern netters sweep county rivals

Comets win 8th match, stay perfect in conference

The Eastern Comets (8-4) stayed perfect in the Mid-Indiana Conference at 2-0 with the three game sweep of Howard County rival Northwestern.

“This is the best all-around game we’ve had this year,” said Eastern coach Meredith Cipriano of the 25-22, 25-10, 25-8 win. “The girls played well defensively, and they did a good job of picking the serves up. Lyndsi Pence was great sharing the wealth [in getting the ball to the right hitters].”

Pence had 39 assists, 16 digs and 11 service points. Chelsea Wilson added 17 service points, including five aces, 11 digs and eight kills. Hayley Mavrick contributed with nine service points, including four aces, nine digs and seven kills and Kayleigh Lindsay had 10 digs, nine service points and nine kills.

The Tigers dropped to 0-2 in the MIC and 3-11 overall. Northwestern was led by Kylie Ballard with nine serve receptions, seven digs, five assists, three service points, including two aces and three kills. Bailey Muhlenkamp added six digs, five service points, including two aces. Cat Lowden contributed with eight serve receptions and two service points both aces. Alex Wiley had 13 service points and eight digs, and Amy Harshman had five assists and four kills.

Northwestern coach Marty Britten saw his team fall apart in the second and third games.

“We played quite well in the first game,” Britten said. “Everyone did a nice job. We took it right to them right down to the wire. But, we had way too many errors in the second and third games. We had no communication — no foot movement.”

Western def. Tri-Central 25-19, 17-25, 25-22, 16-25, 15-7

Sable Staller led Western to victory with 19 kills, 14 digs, three solo blocks and five assists blocks. Nikki McCracken added 13 kills. Amber Hudson had 14 service points. Brinna Rollins added 36 assists and Janel Dewitt had 19 digs.

Western coach Dennis Crum said it was an ugly win.

“The win sends everyone home happy, but we weren’t consistent,” Crum said. “We were not playing well.”

Rossville def. Taylor 25-20, 21-25, 25-19, 25-16

The 5-15 Titans fell on the road but coach Shane Vore liked the way his team played.

“[Monday] was the first time we’ve played fairly consistent throughout the match. We limited the runs Rossville was able to make on us for the most part,” he said. “The games we did that in, we were competitive in or we won. It’s a step forward.”

Kaitlynne Smith topped the team with 11 points, including three aces, and had six kills while Elisa Black matched her 11 points and had nine assists. Liz Mamaril finished with a team-high 10 kills and 14 digs while Dri Barnett added seven kills.

Taylor hosts Maconaquah Thursday.

BOYS SOCCER

Western 3, Lakeview Christian 1

Western’s boys soccer squad got off to a shaky start but rebounded to claim a 3-1 home match victory over Lakeview Christian Monday night.

“We let [Lakeview] get a goal on us early and then our guys kind of re-focused after that,” said Panthers coach Mike Roe. “We played pretty good defense after that.”

Roe said he was pleased to get Jake Phillips back in the lineup after an injury and that Clay O’Neal and Andrew Rogers were big factors in the defensive effort.

Western had goals from Nikhil Sharma, Evan Briscoe and Phillips — assists came from Rogers, Briscoe and Josh Jackson. Drew Brantley made three saves.

The Panthers improved to 6-3-1 heading into a match Thursday at Frankfort.

GOLF

Maconaquah 180, Eastern 209

Maconaquah’s Jessica Off and Carly Linn shared medalist honors with 43s as the Braves had too much Eastern on the front nine at the American Legion.

Michelle Carpenter shot 44 to lead the Comets.

“We’re a little banged up and sick right now,” said Comets’ coach Mike Hamilton. [Carpenter] played well and we need her to do that for us to keep our team score low. She only needed 14 putts, so she had a nice round.”

Other Eastern scores included Kaylee Kingseed (58), Kayla Elkins (56), Emily Seagrave (51), Katie McKinney (62) and Amelie Drunekaler (59).

Other Maconaquah players figuring in their team total were Chelsie Carmichael and Alicia Ferre, each with 47s.

Eastern shoots for its third win today at Alexandria.

TENNIS

Maconaquah 5, Northwestern 0

Maconaquah stayed alive in the Mid-Indiana Conference race with a convincing 5-0 victory over Northwestern.

In the tightest match of the afternoon, Maconaquah’s Jeremy Graber claimed a 6-3, 5-7, 6-3 win over Drew Hanson. Other Mac singles winners in straight sets were Sam Dick and Austin Hudson. Mac doubles teams Christian Fulton and Dakota Harts and Chad Hinders and Cole Shafer also won in straight sets.

“It was a good conference win for us,” said Braves coach Dan Fulton. “Northwestern has a good No. 1 singles player and that was a nice match. I was proud of Graber.”

Maconaquah improved to 8-3 overall and 3-1 in the MIC.

Taylor 5, Delphi 0

Coach Dave Wise’s Taylor squad evened its record at 4-4 with the homecourt win over Delphi.

Matt Brankle lead the way at No. 1 singles with a 6-0, 6-1 decision. Geoff Stimler (6-2, 4-6, 6-1) and Justin Anderson (6-1, 6-0) also claimed singles wins.

Matt Petty and Reomey Northington won 6-2, 6-3 at No. 1 doubles and Cody Hinton and Tim Simmons were 6-1, 6-1 winners at the No. 2 spot.

“It was our first 5-0 win of the season,” Wise said, “so that’s nice. Delphi is down a little bit, but we’ve got good athletes who are getting better all the time.”

Wise said the best match of the day was at No. 1 doubles.

“Delphi put its Nos. 1-2 singles players together at No. 1 doubles and [Petty and Northington] still came out with a nice win. That’s been our strongest point this season — we’re 6-2 at No. 1 doubles.”