Indians sweep rivals in volleyball

Jackson senior Taylor Glueck worked hard on her serve in the offseason.

Her hard work paid off when her Indians volleyball team knocked off host Central 25-14, 25-18 on Wednesday night.

"Taylor's a strong player," Jackson coach Maile Gannon said. "She's probably one of the best all-around players we have. She's developed a really good jump-float serve. She's been practicing on it for about a year. She's being consistent with it, and it throws a lot of passers off, it makes it difficult to pass. She gets fired up for the big games. She loves to play and compete."

Central (4-9-1) set the tone early, using a 4-0 run to take a quick lead in the first game. Jackson (10-2) eventually would take the lead at 9-8 and never trail again in the opener.

With the game tied at 9-9, the Indians used a 6-1 run to seize control.

Jackson's Taylor Glueck spikes over Central's Tori Scheller during the second game Wednesday at Central. (Fred Lynch)

"We came out kind of slow," Glueck said. "Once we realized we needed to come out and play, we just came out and got it together."

After a Central timeout, Jackson pulled away.

The Indians used an 8-1 run to put the first game out of reach, with Kelsey Bierman emphatically spiking the game-winner.

"That first part of the game we had jitters," Gannon said. "We just settled down. We realized that we're doing OK, making good passes, playing good defense and we kept rolling. We wanted to force them in transition. ... We took advantage of it."

"We made some mental errors," Central coach Charity Huff said. "We made some mistakes on our own. We had a hard time getting past those errors. And then we picked it back up, then we make a mistake again, and that's something we've been working on this season."

Central's Lexis Nutt passes the ball during the first game Wednesday.

Central hung with the Indians in the second game.

With the Tigers up 6-4, Jackson won a long rally to edge closer before Glueck took over.

Glueck won four straight serves as part of a 5-0 run to give the Indians a 9-6 advantage.

"Coach [Tyler] Abernathy always opens up the gym every morning," Glueck said. "So I always go in there before a game and work on serving. I try to focus on hitting the spots. I was pumped. We did some stuff before the game, joked around a little. It's Cape -- you're always excited."

But the Tigers refused to back down.

Central's Chelsea Pannier, left, and Tori Scheller try to block a shot by Jackson's Taylor Glueck during the first game Wednesday at Central. (Fred Lynch)

Central regained the lead at 15-14 before Jackson picked it back up.

Glueck again got to serve, helping the Indians regain a two-point advantage.

The Indians pulled away from there, using a 5-0 run to cap the victory over their rivals.

"It's big," Glueck said. "We lost the game to Eminence, we were kind of down from that, but we decided we got to get up and get Cape. So it was big."

Glueck paced the Indians with four kills, six digs and four aces. Jill Rushin added nine kills and six digs, while Rachael Meyr tallied seven digs and 20 assists. Cassandra Bollinger had a team-high 10 digs.

Central was led by Jade Sander with six digs and two kills, while Charis Stewart added three kills.