The Charlestown Lady Pirate Junior Varsity and Varsity teams participated Saturday in the annual New Washington Varsity and JV Volleyball Invitational at New Washington High School.  The four team Invitational featured teams from Charlestown, New Washington, Clarksville and Scottsburg.

The Charlestown Junior Varsity team finished their season in a very positive way, improving their regular season record and finalizing it at 15-5; and winning Saturday’s Junior Varsity Invitational Championship trophy.

The JV team dropped their first matchup of the day versus Scottsburg 16-25, & 12-25; however then beat Clarksville 25-23, & 25-22, and host New Washington 25-20, & 25-15.  “Our JV team has had a great season!  In the tournament, they had some hard fought matches, and we are proud of all their efforts.  Even when they are down, they do not give up.  They also had some players missing today, but everyone was able to contribute to help the team win.  Kaia Reid and Amelia McCoy had a good day hitting.  Adia Wells stepped up with her passing and defense and Hannah Vincent showed positive leadership out on the court”, commented Lady Pirate Head Coach Tammy Nuxoll.

The Charlestown Varsity team, two starters short, didn’t fair as well as their Junior Varisty division; finishing the Invitational in fourth place.  Varsity lost to Scottsburg 19-25, & 18-25, lost to Clarksville 18-25, & 20-25, and lost to host New Washington 15-25, 26-24, & 11-15.  “In the first match against Scottsburg, we started off with a good lead.  We had lots of energy and were playing hard, but we had a breakdown in passing and couldn’t stop them once they had momentum. In the second match against Clarksville, we started down 2-6. After that, we allowed them to get four or five points in each rotation compared to our one or two points in a rotation. We can’t win that way. In the second set, we were playing even with Clarksville until around thirteen points. Clarksville then served five in a row to put them up 13-18. Emalee Craven went on a serving spree to put us up by one 19-18, but we couldn’t hang on and ended up losing 20-25. The last match against New Washington we fought back to win the second set to win 26-24 and were up 7-11 in the third set when we let their libero serve for 8 straight points. Due to some players being gone, we had to make several adjustments on defense and passing today, but it doesn’t matter who is on the floor, we have got to be able to put a match away when we have a lead like that. Despite the loses today, I am proud of the way that players stepped up today to play some different positions”, concluded Coach Nuxoll.  Emalee Craven had a big day with 22 kills, 9 blocks 23 digs and 3 aces.  Bri Harvey had 8 kills and 8 blocks. Sidney Goedeker had 9 kills.  Kiersten James had 8 kills and 5 blocks.  Molly Braunecker had 30 assists, and Chrissa Ledbetter had 23 digs.

Charlestown will next host their Sectional round of the state tourney beginning October 20th.  The Sectional tourney pairs will be announced Monday morning and announced on PiratePride.BLUE when made official.

The Charlestown Lady Pirate Volleyball team capped off another busy week, making a long trip to South Central High School and defeating the Lady Rebels in four.  The win gives the Lady Pirates a three game winning streak; after also beating Borden and Rock Creek earlier in the week.  Charlestown (7-18) has won five of their last seven; as they prepare for sectional play they host in two weeks.  The Charlestown Varsity team defeated South Central 25-22, 16-25, 25-19, and 25-19 Thursday evening.  “This has been a good week for CHS volleyball.  We won all of our matches this week for a three game winning streak! We struggled some tonight with our passing and offense, but I give credit to our girls for sticking with it and how everyone had to step up at times tonight to help get the victory. In the first, set we started with a small lead, but let it slip away and let a few of their servers get on a serving run. We able to hang on and win the first set. The second set we just couldn’t get anything going. We continued to struggle passing wise and we weren’t communicating on defense. The third set we started at a 0-6 deficit before we started to play and turn things around. Hannah Vincent came in to help us with passing and defense. We were down 9-16 when Molly Braunecker gave us a great serving stretch where we scored eight points. Haley Vincent and Emalee Craven had a few serving runs to help us win the set 25-19. The fourth set we were more in control. We had a strong serving run by Emalee Craven, and Danielle Miles hit a few good line shots for kills. I’m proud of the way the girls were able to show how much they wanted the win by coming from behind to win the third set”, commented Lady Pirate Head Coach Tammy Nuxoll.  Charlestown stat leaders at South Central included Emalee Craven (9 kills), Kiersten James and Danielle Miles each contributed seven kills.  Molly Braunecker (11 assists); Bri Harvey (4 blocks); and Maddie Nuxoll and Hannah Vincent had eleven digs each.

The Charlestown JV team remains hot……defeating South Central Thursday evening 25-2 & 25-9 to improve their record to 13-4 on the season.  The Lady Pirate JV team have won nine straight contests and finished 5-2 in conference play this year.  “The JV had a very strong serving night. In the first set, Hannah Vincent served twenty-two straight serves and in the second set Amelia McCoy served twelve straight with Hannah Vincent following with seven straight points. Serving is crucial and tonight consistent serving paid off”, concluded Coach Nuxoll.

Charlestown Volleyball (Varsity and JV) will next be in action in the New Washington Invitational Tournament on Saturday morning, October 10th.