Can the Falcons win state? Page design

Page design for Oct. 23, 2012 edition of the Herald Journal.

Can the Falcons win state?

It’s the right question.

With the sectional tournament concluded, it is no longer premature to ask whether the 2012 Frontier volleyball team can take the program further than last season’s barrier-breaking squad that made the final four.

Tonight is the first step.

The talk around Frontier has been focused on early November since the preseason, but it has taken until now to see the clear path forward for what teams get to make the trip to Muncie for the state finals.

Actually, I doubt anyone connected to the Frontier program will want to speak about anything further than the regional match tonight against Riverton Parke. Messing with the karma of sports is never a good idea, and looking past an opponent is possibly the most dangerous of those transgressions.

That doesn’t mean we don’t get to speculate though.

Thus far, the 2012 Falcons have accomplished almost every realistic goal for the regular season and sectional. Midwest Conference champs, check. Sectional repeat champs, check. The Falcons avenged a few regular season losses from 2011 along the way as well. There was no undefeated streak this season, and it was possibly that 0-1 start and opening loss to Lafayette Jeff that kept the Falcons mired at the bottom of the Class 1A rankings throughout the season, even dropping out of the top 10 at one point before earning
wins over higher ranked foes Pioneer and Rossville in the second half of the regular season.


Whether the Falcons indeed follow through on their goals to move past last season’s accomplishments will be determined by no one else but Frontier’s players and coaches and the opponents they see across the net.

These are the reasons Frontier is in the conversation:

2011 vs. 2012

While Wes-Del proved how far ahead it was from the rest of Class 1A in 2011, the Falcons’ three-set loss in the semistate finals against the eventual state champion doesn’t tell the whole story. There’s a reason 2011 Frontier had yet to drop a set in the state tournament before the final four, and it’s not a provocative one: Frontier was good. Good enough on the court to challenge for a state title in fact, but Frontier had yet to be forced into a position to handle any shortcomings before Wes-Del presented the Falcons with a giant problem.

While Frontier enters the 2012 postseason with a better record (and has again not been forced into a fourth set in either of its sectional games), it has come with a new set of trials and a less wide-eyed approach
to the regular season. There have been few times this season that players and coaches haven’t mentioned
the different framework of how this roster has come together. Coach Shelly  Pullins doesn’t believe that it is empty rhetoric either.

“You have six seniors starting on the floor. They’re very tight, they’re very close knit, and I think we had breakdowns last year where we didn’t play together as a team,” Pullins said. “I think with these girls, that’s not happened very much this season. Overall I don’t think that’s going to happen the way it did before.”

The rotation

The difference in a year is more than just a mindset. Frontier has only gotten better since last season’s finale, both with its star players and the rotation around them, and the depth now displayed for the Falcons has been the key in 2012.

The offensive statistics don’t go very deep, with only four hitters holding significant kill totals, but what they show is a team that has learned how to best utilize its players. Senior middle hitter Jenna Sullivan was a force before 2011, but it has been a season of role change to get to where the Falcons are now. Sullivan’s offensive tools have been more showcased in her senior season, already eclipsing her 2011 kill total
by 47 even with nine less sets on the year, and the 6-foot-3 athlete has added nearly 100 blocks to her
2011 total while holding her own in the back row instead of rotating off of the court.

Kattie Lee, the addition for last season that moved Frontier from an also-ran to a power, is no longer as much of the focal point for every Frontier possession even as her impact has remained unchanged. While her total attack opportunities have dropped over 100 from last season, her errors have lowered just as precipitously even as Lee’s average kills per set remains close to its previous level, a drop from 3.98 to 3.78.

After besting Rossville for the sectional title, Lee said the performance was an example of what the Falcons can do when they are at their best.

“I think once we get in a rhythm, we’re unstoppable. Clearly tonight we had our moments, and we held (Rossville) under 10 (points) in the first game, being as good a team as they are, I thought, ‘Well, OK,’” Lee said. “Our passing and our serving really came, our offense and defense came ready to play, and I think it will always be there for us defense-wise.”

The emergence of Alyssa Marzke (147 kills) has provided another outside threat for the Falcons, while Jesah Marlatt ranks just behind Lee in total digs while having 100-plus kills of her own. Added with setter
Megan Doyle (who has been in the position for a full year as opposed to one month in 2011), defensive specialist Corin Runk and libero Brynleigh Jensen, and the full rotation is rarely altered. That kind of consistency has worked thus far.

Sullivan credits the inherent competition felt throughout the roster as the difference.

“One thing that we have that a lot of teams don’t is that everyone on the court is always competing. We have that competitive drive, and we always have it within us,” Sullivan said.

The bracket

Having been beaten by No. 5 Cowan for the sectional title, Wes-Del will not have a chance to defend its state title. No. 3 Loogootee knocked off No. 1 Barr-Reeve in Sectional 63, further thinning the pack. Not counting Frontier, six of the state’s top 10 ranked teams made the regional level, and four were placed in the Loogootee semistate bracket.

Frontier, in the Caston semistate bracket, does have king-slayer Cowan as a possible future foe, as well
as No. 6 Pioneer whom the Falcons beat 3-1 to secure the MWC title.

“I think that if these girls play, for instance the way they did (against Rossville), and they can and they keep
things consistent, it’s going to take a really good team to stop them,” Pullins said. “They’re so deep on their
hitters and they’re so good on defense. I think if they play their game, they can go all the way.”

Frontier will begin the post-sectional tournament tonight at 7 p.m., playing Riverton Parke at home for the regional title.

This column was printed in the Oct. 23, 2012 edition of the Herald Journal.