Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

DOVER - It wasn't the start the Western Boone volleyball team was searching for when they hosted Lafayette Central Catholic on Thursday night. But once they got into their groove, the Stars had no problems taking care of business and topped the Knights 3-1 (20-25, 25-18, 25-10, 25-19) to improve to 17-3 on the year. "We had an amazing match on Tuesday at Harrison, then had to come back and I think that zapped us a little bit," Western Boone head coach Laura Bragg said. "We started a little slow today, but I'm happy with the way we fought through that adversity in the first set, and really in the fourth set too when they came back." Western Boone held a narrow lead early in the first set, but LCC closed the set on a 13-6 run to take the set. Bragg said the Stars had to do a better job of making sure they weren't letting the Knights dictate points. "We just had to make sure we kept them out of system," Bragg said. "Their best hitter is a middle and she's really good, so once we got them out of system, they couldn't set her as much." The Stars took care of business in the second set, winning 25-18, then dominated the third 25-10. They appeared well on their way in the fourth, up 17-12, but the Knights made things interesting. LCC came back to tie the set at 19, but a kill by Audrey Dunn, an error by LCC and two kills from Alayna Christner made it 23-19, and they closed the set from there. "We called a timeout and were able to regroup," Bragg said. "They had gotten four or five points pretty quick in a row, and we just had to take a step back and refocus to finish it off." Raegan Durbin led the Stars, finishing with 27 kills and seven digs. Saige Terwiske had 10 kills, with Christner having eight and Dunn finishing with seven. Janie Ransom had 50 assists in the match. Elena Gubera led the team with 13 digs, with Chloe Gillan adding eight. The Stars have a challenging Saturday ahead, facing Brebeuf and Brownsburg at the Brebeuf Invite. They then come back to host Lebanon on Monday. With just seven matches left in the regular season, Bragg said every one takes on added importance. "It's crazy how fast this season has gone," Bragg said. "The last couple of weeks, we have shown a big improvement, so we are ready to go in there and play some great volleyball against great teams." Article and photo compliments of Will Willems will.willems@reporter.net