Kimberly Carothers
When Columbus East played Bloomington South in the Panthers’ volleyball tournament early in the season, Bloomington South won in two sets.
Tuesday night, when the teams met again at East, the outcome was much closer. The Olympians took the Panthers to five sets before falling 25-15, 19-25, 26-24, 17-25, 15-11 on senior night.
“This was a big improvement from what we’ve seen lately,” East coach Alison Eagleman said. “I thought they really brought up the level of play, and they’re just going to keep doing that Thursday.”
The Olympians (3-21), who visit Columbus North on Thursday, twice rallied from one-set deficits. They led 9-4 in the fifth set Tuesday, only to see Bloomington South (12-12) score nine consecutive points to take control. East got back to within 13-11 before the Panthers closed it out.
“This is tough,” Eagleman said. “We had two that we pulled up from JV that can only play so many sets, and we couldn’t use them the last set.”
Lilah Klei pounded 15 kills, Krea Martin recorded 35 assists, Kimberly Carothers had two solo and four assist blocks, Lauren Smith notched 12 digs and Jenna Thomas served four aces to lead the Olympians.
Also for East, Anika Jenkins tallied 10 kills, and Carothers added seven kills and three aces. Claire Behnke had five assist blocks, Addison Emery contributed nine digs and Chloe Gill added eight digs.
Emery, a senior who had been the Olympians starting libero, was seeing her first action since injuring her knee early in the season.
“She was cleared to play, so we’re hoping she is good to go the rest of the season,” Eagleman said.
