Greenwood looks to win its fourth-consecutive 14th District title
#1 Greenwood Gators (7-6) vs. #3 Bowling Green Purples (15-6)
October 21, 2020 – 6:00pm – South Warren High School
By Perry Swack – Sporting Times
Greenwood will make its seventh-straight appearance in the district title game (also its 19th appearance in 20 seasons) when it takes on archrival Bowling Green tonight at South Warren High School in the 14th District championship game. The Lady Gators will be seeking a fourth-consecutive title, while Bowling Green will be looking to match its 2013 championship. Greenwood swept 4-seed Warren East in three sets on Monday night, as Bowling Green and South Warren played a five-set thriller on Tuesday evening.
2020 Meeting
Greenwood and Bowling Green played back on September 10 at BGHS, and the Lady Gators defeated the Lady Purples in straight sets – 25-21, 25-22, 25-16. Senior outside hitter Katie Howard led the way with 18 kills, six blocks, six digs, and four aces. Freshman middle blocker Aubrey Packer paced the Lady Gators with seven blocks, while senior libero Sydney Keown tallied 11 digs. Junior setter Meg Gore led all players with 31 assists. The Lady Purples were led by sophomore setter Kaia Barnett’s 18 assists and sophomore libero Kenzie Austin’s 11 digs.
Players to Watch
Any time Greenwood is playing, all eyes are on Katie Howard. The future Hilltopper is averaging more than four kills per set and nearly three digs per set. Meg Gore will be critical for the Lady Gators as well, as she is averaging eight assists per set. The junior setter had 40 assists and five aces in the team’s match against East on Monday. As for the Lady Purples, Kaia Barnett is one of the state’s top assisters with nearly 600 on the season. Coach Tim Sharp’s club has four players with over 100 kills, led by outside hitter Charli Hodges – who has more than 200 on the season. The junior had 16 kills in the match with South Warren on Tuesday.
Preview
Greenwood played only one game between September 16 and October 8 after having to shut down its team for two weeks due to COVID-19. However, coach Allen Whittinghill’s club played five games in the final week of the regular season to prepare for the postseason. The Lady Gators often play 40 games per season, so the fact that the team has only played 13 at this point in the season is rather unusual. Wednesday night’s match will show us if the 2020 season will also lead to unusual results. GHS has won three-straight 14th District championships and 14 of the last 18 titles.
Bowling Green is up for the challenge and comes into tonight’s contest having won five of six and 8 of 10. The Lady Purples dispatched of rival South Warren last night despite only winning one out of seven sets against the Lady Spartans in the regular season. Before that victory, BG had not defeated South since September of 2017, a streak that stretched nine games. On top of that, the Lady Purples had been ousted by the Lady Spartans in the district tournament in each of the last four seasons. Having ended one streak, Coach Sharp’s team is now looking to end another. Greenwood has defeated Bowling Green in eleven-straight matches, dating back to September 2015. Tonight, is the chance to end that.
Both teams have qualified for the 4th Region Tournament set to begin next week. If history repeats itself, we may see these two squads squaring off with a region title at stake.
If you cannot make it to the Championship, you can watch live:
The 14th District Volleyball Championship is on ST Livestream! 5:45pm Pregame / 6:00pm Start
Go to stfanclub.com/live or download the Sporting Times app on any ROKU enabled device!
