Columbus East’s Alex Duncan (23) sets the ball as Columbus North’s Yuta Kondo (4) and Hank Lin (20) look on May 2 at Columbus East High School.
Tommy Walker | For The Republic
The Inaugural IHSAA boys volleyball postseason begins this week, and Columbus East and Columbus North hope to be among the contenders for sectional titles.
The Olympians and Bull Dogs will compete in the Franklin Sectional, which kicks off Wednesday with North playing Greenwood Christian Academy at 6 p.m. East will play Whiteland at around 7:45 p.m. Thursday in the final opening-round game.
East (15-16) has beaten the Warriors (8-21) two sets-to-none in a tournament and three sets-to-one in a match at Whiteland this season.
“We played Whiteland twice this year, and the boys are ready to play them again,” East coach Kailey Smith said. “We’re confident, but we’re not going in cocky. So the boys know that we can’t go in with a big head. We have to be ready for anything that they throw at us and that they may make some changes.”
North (9-18) and GCA (11-12) did not meet during the regular season.
“We’ve looked at the common opponents, and it looks like it should be a good match,” North coach Jeff Case said. “We’re going to have to play well to advance. But we’re pretty happy with the draw.”
The North-GCA winner will play Shelbyville (7-15) in the first semifinal at 11 a.m. Saturday. The Bull Dogs beat the Golden Bears three sets-to-one early in the season.
The East-Whiteland winner will play the Franklin-Greenwood winner in the second semifinal at around 12:45 p.m. Saturday.
The Olympians split with Greenwood (12-13) this season, falling three sets-to-none two weeks ago before beating the Woodmen two sets-to-none in Saturday’s East Round Robin. East and sectional favorite and host Franklin (18-11) did not meet in the regular season.
“Having that win over Greenwood, I think that gave us a little bit more confidence,” Smith said. “I think our biggest battle is going to be playing Franklin next Saturday when we beat Whiteland on Thursday.”
The sectional final is at 7 p.m. Saturday.
The Olympians feature 10 seniors on their 13-man roster, led by setter Alex Duncan and outside hitters Ian School and Tyler Ernst. North is led by junior outside hitter Leo Iorio and senior setter Kota Kondo.
Both East and North are entering the tournament with a little momentum. The Olympians swept all three opponents in their round-robin Saturday. The Bull Dogs are coming off a three-set win Friday at Pike.
“The guys improved a lot,” Case said. “They were just a joy to work with. It was a lot of fun to work with them and going out there and competing.”
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