The Charlestown Lady Pirate Volleyball program traveled to Eastern High School Tuesday evening for a varsity and junior varsity conference match-up.  Charlestown varsity (2-17 & 0-6 MSC) lost to Eastern in five sets, 29-27, 20-25, 24-26, 25-18, 13-15.  “It is very difficult to lose a match like this after you have fought so hard.  I’m proud of the girls for working together and fighting for every point.  We just came up a little short tonight. We had some opportunities where we had some leads, but were not able to hang on. We were without one of our middles tonight and had to move some people around. Kiersten James really stepped up tonight moving from the outside to the middle. She was the kill leader tonight with fourteen. Danielle Miles also had a big night with nine kills. Maddie Nuxoll led in the assist category with sixteen and Molly Braunecker led the dig category with thirty-one. Haley Vincent, Danielle Miles and Chrissa Ledbetter did a good job passing tonight which helped us with our offense. We need to build on what we did tonight when we face Lanesville tomorrow”, commented Lady Pirate Head Coach Tammy Nuxoll.

The Charlestown JV team however defeated their Eastern counterparts 25-12 and 25-7 in a best of three set game; improving their season record to 6-4 (2-2 MSC).  “Our JV team continues to win.  They played very consistent tonight and led the whole way.  Kaia Reid led the offense and Amelia McCoy and Alex Chester did a good job serving for us tonight”, concluded Coach Nuxoll.

Charlestown Varsity lost in four: 25-21, 16-25, 19-25, 16-25

Coach Nuxoll:  We played really well at times tonight. We had stretches of good defense and heads up plays along with good serving, but we also had some stretches of not being completely focused and had some miscommunication. We definitely had a night of ups and down. We had a 17-7 lead in the first set, but let North Harrison chip away at us until they were only one or two points behind.. We were able to hang on, but didn’t come out focused in the second set. North Harrison didn’t make as many errors and we were not able to put the ball way. We are overall better at passing this year, but we still tend to have pockets of poor passing that doesn’t allow us to run an offense. Emalee Craven led the offense tonight with 10 kill and 4 aces. Bri Harvey contributed 8 blocks and Maddie Nuxoll had eleven assists and six digs. Molly Braunecker added 4 kills and six digs. Chrissa Ledbetter had a good night passing. We will have to continue to put big plays together this weekend when we participate in the Jeffersonville Invitational.

Charlestown JV won in three: 21-25, 25-22, 15-3

The JV team improved their record tonight! They had a slow start in the first set, but were able to start a come back at the end of set with the strong hitting of Kaia Reid. They took that momentum to win a close second set ended by a big kill by Madison Christy. The third set they came off strong behind the serving of Amelia McCoy and never looked back. This team has done a good job of battling back all year!

Charlestown Varsity lost 19-25, 16-25, 18-25

Charlestown JV lost 21-25, 22-25

Coach Nuxoll:  I am extremely proud of the way the Charlestown Program played tonight. Christian Academy has a great program and there is a reason they were state runner up last year. Despite not having a great passing night, our girls hung in there and played with determination. They did not give up on plays and showed a lot of hustle. We were down in the first set and was able to come back off of some strong serving by Maddie Nuxoll. Molly Braunecker came up with some nice hustle plays on defense contributing eight digs and Emalee Craven led the offense with 5 kills and seven blocks. My hope is that we can continue to play at a high level for our match at North Harrison on Thursday.

Our JV team also played well tonight. There were times when they dug themselves in a hole, but I was encouraged at the way they continued to fight back and were able to keep the matches tight.