Golden Eagles clinch OCC Capital Division volleyball crown

News Staff Reports

They are cel­e­brat­ing in Sunbury.

Big Wal­nut wrapped up the Ohio Cap­i­tal Con­fer­ence Cap­i­tal Divi­sion girls vol­ley­ball cham­pi­onship in style with a solid three-set deci­sion over vis­it­ing Franklin Heights last Thurs­day night in Sunbury.

The Golden Eagles (14–5, 13–1 OCC) won the first set 25–11 before clos­ing out with back-to-back wins of 25–7 and 25–9.

“One of our goals this sea­son was to win the league … some­thing we didn’t do last year,” Big Wal­nut head coach Ron Lehman said after his Golden Eagles and clinched their 11th in the past 13 sea­sons. “It’s nice to get that accom­plished. I’m proud of the way the girls have com­peted this season.”

Natalie Chat­ter­ton led the Golden Eagle offense with seven kills and an ace. Other sta­tis­ti­cal lead­ers included Abby Painter, who fin­ished with seven kills and a pair of aces; Krista Schmidt, who fin­ished with four kills and four aces; and Brooke Hat­field, who col­lected five kills.

The Big Wal­nut stat sheet also included Kylee Williams and Painter who were 9-for-13 and 9-for-12 serv­ing; Rachel O’Morrow and Williams who joined Schmidt with 4 aces; Mor­gan Alley with 42 sets and 24 assists; and Alexis New­man and Claire Chat­ter­ton who totaled 7 and 6 digs, respectively.

Big Wal­nut, ranked 18th in the state in the lat­est Divi­sion II poll, opens post­sea­son play in the Divi­sion II Cen­tral Dis­trict Sec­tional finals Sat­ur­day. The third-seeded Golden Eagles take on the Granville-Jonathan Alder win­ner at 2:30 p.m. at Sunbury.

BIG WALNUT 25–25-25, OLENTANGY ORANGE 20–22-20 — The Golden Eagles locked up at least a share of the Ohio Cap­i­tal Con­fer­ence Cap­i­tal Divi­sion title last Tues­day (Octo­ber 9) record­ing up a tightly-contested 25–20, 25–22, 25–20 three-set vic­tory over the host Pio­neers at Orange High School.

Natalie Chat­ter­ton led the attack with eight kills, help­ing to boost her team to a 13–5 over­all mark and a league record of 12–1 with the vic­tory. Brooke Hat­field and Claire Chat­ter­ton were also solid, clos­ing with seven kills apiece, while Abby Painter fin­ished with six.

Other sta­tis­ti­cal lead­ers included Alexis New­man and Kylee Williams, who were 14-for-18 and 11-for-13 serv­ing, Mor­gan Alley with 62 sets and 29 assists, New­man with 16 digs and N. Chat­ter­ton with 7 blocks.

PICKERINGTON NORTH TOURNAMENT — Bishop Ready topped Big Wal­nut in three games with 25–13, 21–25, 25–11 deci­sion at Saturday’s Pick­er­ing­ton North Tour­na­ment played in Pickerington.

Kylee Williams and Alexis New­man paced the Golden Eagle serv­ing attack, Williams going 10-for-11 with an ace and New­man 7-for-10 with an ace. Mor­gan Alley led Big Wal­nut in sets with 64, digs with 9 and assists with 18. Abby Painter con­tributed 7 kills while Natalie Chat­ter­ton recorded 11 blocks.

Big Wal­nut closed out its 2012 reg­u­lar sea­son slate with a 14–6 record.

Posted by Gary Henery on Oct 17 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.