Tuesday county roundup: EH VB upsets state champs; soccer teams win

Volleyball

Eastern Hancock 3, Wes-Del 1: The Royals defeated the sixth-ranked team in Class A, and the defending Class A state champions, for their 13th straight victory.

EH dropped the first game and then rolled to win 19-25, 25-18, 27-25, 25-15.

Frannie Stephenson had 16 kills, an ace and 11 digs. Melissa Bedell had 11 kills and seven digs. Lauren Harmon had nine kills, three aces and four blocks. Emily Jeffries had three blocks.

Jordian Eastes, who leads the state in assists, added 44 to her school-record total. She also had 12 digs. The back row was solid, as Hannah Best had 26 digs and three aces, Lytia Vanderpool had 16 digs and Tori Bednarski had 12. Five Royals had double-digit digs in the match.

The Royals are now 18-5 on the season. They next play Oct. 2 at home against Knightstown. Wes-Del fell to 16-8.

Yorktown 3, New Palestine 0: The top-ranked Tigers pulled away to a 25-10, 25-10, 25-8 victory over the Dragons in a Hoosier Heritage Conference match.

Katie Morris led NP with three kills and three blocks. Nikki Box led Yorktown with nine kills.

NP is now 11-14 on the year and next plays Thursday at Triton Central. Yorktown, the defending state champion in Class 3A, is 23-1.

Greenfield-Central 3, Shenandoah 0: The Cougars rolled to a 25-10, 25-19, 25-19 victory over the Raiders Tuesday night.

G-C is 15-8 on the season.

Boys soccer

New Palestine 5, Rushville 0: The Dragons posted a solid Senior Night victory over the Lions to improve to 5-1 in Hoosier Heritage Conference play and put themselves in a position to clinch a piece of the HHC title. 

NP will play at Pendleton Heights Thursday night. If the Dragons win, they will share the HHC title with the winner of the Mt. Vernon vs. Greenfield-Central match that will be completed Wednesday afternoon.

Bryson Basaran scored a hat trick for the Dragons. He had both first-half goals for NP. The Dragons had numerous chances to break it open early in the second half, hitting the crossbar twice, but broke through with two goals midway through. Basaran and Nick Martin then scored two goals less than three minutes apart in the second half to make it a 4-0 game with 22 minutes left. Alex Thomas added the final goal in the closing minutes.

Jaron Pridgen had the shutout in net for the Dragons.

Solomon Haynes and Josh Jennings each had an assist as the Dragons' seniors got into the scoring column. Fellow seniors Ryan Perkins, who went down early in the season with an injury, started the game and played briefly. Scott Niehoff, Caleb Kramer and Jackson Cochran also had assists for the Dragons.

"The seniors were great tonight on their final game at home this year," NP coach Bobby Holden said. "All the younger players can look up to the seniors as they lead by example tonight in the way they played the game. I will very much miss this group of seniors and am very proud to have coached them in this great game.

NP is now 9-5-1 overall this season.

The Dragons won the JV game 4-1.

Mt. Vernon 4, Hamilton Heights 1: The Marauders scored three first-half goals to take a 3-0 lead for a big road victory.

Mouhamed Konate had two goals and an assist. C.J. Coleman and Kyle Cansler each had a goal and an assist for MV.

All three goal-scorers each tallied goals in the first half -- with Coleman and Josiah Noska double-assisting Konate's first goal, Drew Kiser feeding Coleman and Konate assisting on Cansler's tally. Cansler fed Konate for a second-half goal.

Corban Hartley and Logan Justus combined to make five saves for the Marauders, who had 13 shots on goal to HH's six.

MV (8-6-2) meets Greenfield-Central on Wednesday at home to resume a match postponed from earlier in the season. It will begin at the start of overtime tied 1-1. Both teams have one HHC loss. An MV win will clinch at least a piece of the HHC title for the Marauders. A G-C win will allow the Cougars to clinch a piece against Rushville the following night.

Girls soccer

Mt. Vernon 9, Greenwood 0: The Marauders rolled in the victory, with two different players registering hat tricks. 

Both Lauren Bradburn and Claudia Brown had three-goal hat tricks. Brown also had an assist.

Danielle Nuckols, Olivia Coleman and Brittany Sanders each scored for MV. Assists went to Carrie Hannemann, Nuckols, Jordan Slusher, Hannah Whitaker, Haley Reifel and Krista Shockley.

Coleman and Lindsey Werking combined for the shutout, making one save.

MV is now 8-4-1 on the year. The Marauders host Pendleton Heights Thursday. A victory would give MV second place in the HHC.

Cross country

Greenfield-Central boys/girls 2nd at Batesville: The Cougar teams were each runners-up to Seymour at the Batesville Invitational. 

In the girls race, G-C tallied 52 points to finish behind Seymour (33) and ahead of Connersville (56) in the six-team event. Kara Purvis (21:28), Emily Dupnick (21:48), Nicole Stephenson (21:47) and Rebecca Flora (21:52) finished 7th-through-10th. Katie Wickham's 18th-place finish rounded out G-C's scoring.

In the boys race, Seymour had 31 points and G-C 65. South Dearborn (78), Connersville (82) and East Central (84) were edged out by G-C.

The Cougars were led by Syrus Fletcher (6th, 17:33) and Garrett Benedict (10th, 18:03), who each finished in the top 10. Christopher Tatom was 14th, Taylor Wright 16th and Jason LaFord 19th.

G-C next competes Saturday in the HHC meet at New Palestine.

Tennis

Franklin Central 5, Mt. Vernon 0: The Marauders played their second top-25 team in as many days, falling 5-0 despite two tough three-set doubles matches.

At No. 1 doubles, Corey Beck/Ben Bobb fell 3-6, 7-5 and then 12-10 in a super-tiebreaker. At No. 2 doubles, Chandler Hines/Andrew Noble fell 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Bryce Bobb took his match to a first-set tiebreaker before falling 7-6, 6-1.

MV (8-8) opens sectional play Thursday at home against New Palestine.

Tournament pairings: Boys soccer, girls soccer & boys tennis tournament pairings have been drawn.

Boys tennis
Mt. Vernon sectional
Thursday, Sept. 27
4 p.m.: Greenfield-Central vs. Eastern Hancock
4 p.m.: Mt. Vernon vs. New Palestine
Friday, Sept. 28
4 p.m.: Championship
Winner goes to: North Central regional, Tuesday, Oct. 2.

Boys soccer
Shelbyville sectional
Wednesday, Oct. 3
5:30 p.m.: Mt. Vernon vs. Greenfield-Central
7:30 p.m.: New Palestine vs. Shelbyville
Saturday, Oct. 6
7:30 p.m.: Championship
Winner goes to: Mt. Vernon regional, Oct. 11/13

Girls soccer
Mt. Vernon sectional
Thursday, Oct. 4
5:30 p.m.: Shelbyville vs. Greenfield-Central
7:15 p.m.: New Palestine vs. Mt. Vernon
Saturday, Oct. 6
5 p.m.: Championship
Winner goes to: Shelbyville regional, Oct. 10/13

Wednesday's schedule

Boys soccer: Greenfield-Central at Mt. Vernon, TBA (completion of suspended game, tied 1-1 going into OT), 5:30 p.m.

Girls soccer: Guerin Catholic at New Palestine, 5/7 p.m.

Girls soccer: Yorktown at Mt. Vernon, 6:30 p.m.

Girls soccer: Rushville at Greenfield-Central, 7 p.m.

Tennis: Pendleton Heights at Eastern Hancock, 5 p.m.