New Palestine High School

The New Palestine volleyball team staved off a match point in the fourth set, then rallied to win 22-25, 25-23, 21-25, 27-25, 15-12 over Class A No. 1 Lutheran in a back-and-forth match Wednesday at NPHS. The Dragons improved to 12-0 with the victory, their fourth five-set win of the season. Each set was incredibly tight, as neither team led by more than five at any point in the match. Lutheran took control late in the first set, but the Dragons won a back-and-forth second set to square the match. The Dragons trailed for much of the third set and eventually fell 25-21. In the fourth, the Dragons again trailed for much of the set, falling behind by four on multiple occasions between 12-8 and 20-16, before Lutheran eventually made it a 21-16 set. Facing defeat, Elena Cook scored back-to-back points with a kill and an ace to cut the deficit to three. After conceding a point, Ella Moeller won the serve back for the Dragons with a kill. Cara Steele ended two long rallies with kills, sandwiched around a hitting error, to tie the set at 22. Adelynn Crispin followed with back-to-back aces to give the Dragons a 24-22 lead and cap a six-point run. Lutheran responded with three straight points to go up 25-24 and serve for the match. Another kill by Steele knotted the set up. Moeller served the last two points to clinch the set. In the fifth set, Kennedy Armstrong served a five-point run to put the Dragons on top, but Lutheran answered with a five-point run of its own to tie the set. From there, it was back-and-forth. The Dragons never trailed, but every point was answered by the Saints. With the set tied 8-8, Crispin had a kill on the left side to give the Dragons the lead. Brooklyn Crim followed with a right-side kill to make it a 10-8 score. Lutheran rallied to tie the match at 12-12 after an ace. On the next point, Armstrong set Caylee Brown in the middle for a putaway that gave the Dragons the lead. That brought Beth Comer to the service line. She served an ace to bring up match point, and Crispin put it away on the next point to clinch the match. Cook had a huge match at the net, tallying 17 kills. She also had two aces. Crispin had a double-double with 11 kills and 13 digs to go along with two aces. Brown also had 10 kills. Steele tallied nine kills. Armstrong had a double-double with 27 assists and 11 digs, as well as three aces. Brileigh Tincher had 18 assists. Emmi Robinson had 25 digs to lead the Dragons. Comer added 10 digs and two aces. Haven Flagle also had two aces. The Dragons are back in action Thursday at Triton Central.