500 is a lot of wins

Coach Carr's teams now have won five hundred games.

500.

D, as the Romans would write.

And that doesn't include all the JV wins.

I don't know how many other volleyball coaches have won 500 games in Indiana. Probably not very many. Sustained excellence is very difficult to achieve. And even though the schedule was upgraded dramatically the last couple of years, she is piling up victories as fast as she ever was. Last year was her best year for winning percentage in her career, and the schedule was the toughest the team has ever played.  This year it's even tougher and so far the team has a higher winning percentage than even last year. Obviously this wouldn't be happening if she didn't have the players. Of course, if she wasn't such a good coach, these players might not want to play for her.

How did the game go that got her there, you ask? Well, let me tell you. The opponent was Bishop Noll, an IHSAA school that we have not played before. They are not a great team, but like most public/Catholic schools we've played, are pretty good. On Monday, though the girls had to overcome the hangover from playing so many games this past weekend plus some unfavorable line judging. Despite all that the girls were victorious, winning 25-20, 25-17, 25-17.

The girls started slowly in the first game. After falling behind 4-2, the Patriots scored three in a row, the last on a Taylor ace. They fell behind again, but thankfully they were able stay close due to a lot of Noll service errors. Still, after a dink kill they trailed 10-7. Another three point run tied it up, and then after a Noll point, the girls scored three more on yet another Noll serving error and kills from Taylor and Rebekah to take a two point lead. The lead stayed at one or two points until a Noll net violation and a nice Holly/Ally block put CCS up 18-14. The team gradually pushed up the lead to as many as six before a BIG Faith kill closed out game one.

Game two saw the girls jump out to the early lead at 5-1 before a series of unforced errors by the Patriots let Noll right back into it. A string of five errors gave Noll a 7-5 lead. A bit later a Noll ace pushed the lead to 12-8. After Noll committed their seventh serve error, a block by Taylor and Lauren seemed to spark the team. CCS eventually got the lead, but only lead by one after a Noll kill at 17-16, but from this point, Calumet outscored Noll 8-1 down the stretch. Faith had four kills in this sequence. Taylor also had a kill, and the last point was scored on an Ally ace.

The Patriots had the lead through most of game three, trailing only at 6-5 and 7-6. Faith started dinking to the open spot and soon Calumet led 10-7. Noll caught us again at 11, but then five straight points, highlighted by a nice block by Taylor and a couple of Ally aces, put CCS in control of the game. Noll did score the next three, but Calumet never trailed by less than two after that. At 18-16, a kill by Faith and an ace by Lauren gave the Patriots a cushion, and they rolled from their, scoring the last five points - Faith kill, Ally block, Faith kill, Lauren ace, and finally a Noll mishit on a spike and the game and Coach's milestone was in the books.

Now only 570 wins to catch Steve Shondell.