Springs Valley Community High School

The Springs Valley volleyball team had the upper hand from the first serve on Tuesday in its Patoka Lake Athletic Conference opener against Crawford County and utilized it to roll to a 25-11, 25-13, 25-11 victory. The Blackhawks were potent at the service line, committing just five errors on 74 attempts and racking up 15 aces. Seniors Brynne Buchanan and Tynley Kluesner led the way in that regard, combining to go 30/30 on serves with six and five aces respectively. Molly Tucker was also serving for much of the evening, using her 22 attempts to win 17 points including three aces. Springs Valley was also particularly balanced in its attack. Six different Blackhawks had at least three kills, never allowing the Wolfpack to focus on stopping one player. “When everybody can share the load it’s huge. Teams just can’t really pinpoint or double down on anyone,” Springs Valley coach Erin Carnes said. “I felt like they were blocking quite well here and there, but they were having to move all over the net up front and when we can spread everything out and not have one kid having to bear the weight of the team it benefits everyone.” Of the multiple standouts for Springs Valley in the game, Tucker was one who had a particularly good performance. Not only was she excellent in service, she also passed the ball quite well with six of her eight passes being deemed “3-passes,” which means they were good enough to allow the Blackhawks to run any attacking play they wanted to after them. She also led the Blackhawks with six digs. “Molly is so good about reading the ball the moment it leaves a server’s hand. She identifies on her body where that ball is traveling to,” Carnes said. “There was a ball specifically in the third set that was deep and she was in her position to start, transitioning back and she still passed it with a textbook platform. “She does a good job at reading the ball and she’s so steady with that platform. She just locks it in.” Springs Valley (5-2, 1-0 PLAC) took the first step toward defending its conference championship with the victory. The Blackhawks have won the last seven PLAC titles and have every intention of making it eight in a row. In order to do that they’ll have to win five more matches, but the match they’re most focused on right now is the next one. “They understand what’s on the line. This is definitely a goal of theirs and it has been for many years,” Carnes said. “They’re going in just one game at a time, not overlooking anybody and understanding that we have a job to do like we did tonight against Crawford. “Every team is going to be the most important team we face when we come up against them and hopefully good things happen.” Springs Valley plays at Bloomfield on Wednesday. SPRINGS VALLEY 3, CRAWFORD COUNTY 0 Crawford County 11 13 11 — 0 Springs Valley 25 25 25 — 3 Springs Valley: Maddie Carnes 7 kills, 15 assists, 3 digs, 1 ace; Tynley Kluesner 6 kills, 2 digs, 5 aces, 1 block; Leigh Carnes 5 kills, 9 assists; Brynne Buchanan 4 kills, 5 digs, 6 aces; Bella Nottger 4 kills, 1 assist, 1 dig, 2 blocks; Alayna Denbo 3 kills, 1 block; Molly Tucker 1 assist, 6 digs, 3 aces.