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BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Karlee Sommers Ashlyn Bailey Breonna Laurence
KENTLAND — The Caston volleyball team had its fortunes reversed from last season to this.
Last year they went 24-8. This year they went 8-24.
A promising future that coach Gina Heirlmeier envisions starts now.
But first, an inexperienced squad had to finish this season, which they did with a 25-7, 25-12, 25-7 loss to No. 3 Tri-County in a Class 1A, Sectional 50 quarterfinal at South Newton Thursday.
Tri-County improved to 29-1 and will face Pioneer in the semifinals at 11 a.m. Eastern today. Pioneer swept DeMotte Christian 25-16, 25-5, 25-14 in Thursday’s other quarterfinal.
Madi Douglass led Caston with four kills, and Grace Colvin and Ashlyn Bailey had three each.
Karlee Sommers led Caston with 13 digs and 15 serves received in her final prep match. Colvin had 13 serves received. Senior setter Makena Middleton had 10 assists.
Tri-County’s Sara Zarse had 15 kills while the entire Caston team had 13.
Tri-County also had 12 aces as compared to Caston’s one. Zarse also had six aces when she wasn’t delivering booming, accurate attacks.
Tri-County was the more experienced team. Tri-County played 10 players, all juniors and seniors.
Caston played sophomores Douglass, Natalie Warner, Baylee Harrison, Jada Martz and Ariyana Kahlmorgan and freshmen Colvin, Hadlie Coffing, Gigi Berry, Ellie Zartman and Callie Salisbury.
But as Heirlmeier explained, 2024 grads like Alexa Finke, Annie Harsh, Macee Hinderlider, Isabel Scales and Addison Zimpleman played so much that even this year’s seniors were relatively inexperienced.
“We didn’t play freshmen because I wanted them to get experience,” Heirlmeier said. “We played freshmen because we needed to have them. In order to play this game, you need a solid eight players, nine players to have a good, effective lineup, and only so many players can play so many positions. We try to put the best players in the program in the best spots to be the best team we could at the varsity level. It’s always good when you can get young kids in though. They’re going to have a lot of time that they’re going to look back next year, and they’re going to have already experienced a lot of stuff, including the sectional atmosphere. They’re only going to get better from that too.”
A young squad became even younger due to a broken foot that senior Shaylei Yadon suffered in practice and an ankle injury that Kylee Logan suffered that kept her out in a walking boot.
Hannah Arvin is Tri-County’s other middle hitter, and she had nine kills. Arvin is listed at 5-9, and Zarse is 5-8.
“Extremely tough,” Heirlmeier said when asked about trying to defend Zarse and Arvin. “Obviously, we have a little bit of a different lineup coming into tonight with Shaylei breaking her foot, but just incredible players. They’re actually fun to watch if you weren’t playing against them. So I wish them all the luck as they move forward.”
Caston had lost to Tri-County 25-7, 25-10 in a tournament at Tri-County on Aug. 31. Heirlmeier said Caston’s serve-receive was better in this match than in the previous match.
“Serve-receive is always key,” Heirlmeier said. “And I think at moments we were really consistent. And at other moments, it caused us some problems. But for the most part, I expected that. They’re a great serving team as well, and I knew they were going to come after us.”
Caston did not get a point on its serve until a Douglass dump in Game 2 cut the lead to 16-8.
Back-to-back kill errors from Tri-County’s Evalynn Ross cut it to 23-12 before Maddi Nevitt and Arvin had kills to close out the game.
Warner had a stuff block in Game 3, and Breonna Laurence had an ace that kept Caston within 8-4 before a Zarse serving torrent pushed the lead to 21-4.
Still, Heirlmeier is optimistic about the future.
“Our program is in a really good position,” Heirlmeier said. “We had 24 kids on the roster this year at the high school level. Seventh and eighth grade between the two of them had over 20 girls. Fifth and sixth (grade) again, solid rosters. We didn’t have to play anybody up or down or try to bring up people to play at any level. We went from my first year having one club team at the lower levels to now having two club teams and hoping to expand that to three. We ran a little two-through-five club with Culver last year and made our kids travel a little bit and then ran camps where we had 60-some girls K-through-4 come through. So we’re really in a good place. I’m happy with the work that all our coaches have put in.”
Tri-County def. Caston, 25-7, 25-12, 25-7
CASTON STATS
Madi Douglass – 4 kills, 1 block, 3 digs, 1 assist, 7 serves received; Ashlyn Bailey – 3 kills, 2 serves received; Natalie Warner – 2 kills, 1 block, 1 dig; Grace Colvin – 3 kills, 13 serves received; Hadlie Coffing – 1 kill, 3 serves received; Breonna Laurence – 1 ace, 3 digs, 8 serves received; Karlee Sommers – 13 digs, 15 serves received; Makena Middleton – 5 digs, 10 assists; Ellie Zartman – 2 digs, 2 serves received; Callie Salisbury – 1 dig, 4 serves received; Ariyana Kahlmorgan – 1 assist; Baylee Harrison – 2 serves received
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