Bloomington South volleyball stays perfect with sweep of North

Which means the Panthers' opponents do, too, when it comes to aligning their defense.

On Thursday, Sept. 3, South's best choice was to set senior middle Quinn Reynolds , who had 16 kills, everything from dunks and tips high above the crowd at the net to lasers from the back row, as the undefeated Panthers swept rival North, 25-19, 25-21, 25-19 at the Cougar Den.

Bloomington North volleyball welcomes South | Our best photos

"Our team, you can put the ball anywhere on the floor and trust that it's being taken care of," South coach Emma Abplanalp said. "She's a great leader on this team, they're all so supportive. They all want to win. They all want to be the best.

"So I think that really helps them feel confident in each other so they're able to play loose and play free and know that we're in this together."

Every Clark, Lily Reinhart and Ella Alley kept the block busy when Reynolds' number wasn't called. Junior Ola Parker, the new setter with returning starter Harper Rahn, is also settling in, making thing smoother.

"It helps to have a team that has multiple weapons," North coach Sami Ferachi said. "You've just got to learn how to defend it. At the end of the day, everyone is just a high school girl. Everyone's got their weaknesses.

"No one's playing in college right now. Everyone has room to grow, so you just have to find what those weaknesses are an expose them. And the quicker you find them the quicker you can win games. They had the upper hand tonight."

And South thinks it still has more in the tank if there's a sectional rematch.

"We definitely didn't play our game as much as we normally do," Abplanalp said. "This game, so much hype around it. I try to treat it as normal a game as possible, but you can't help it. The crowd is full. It's loud in here.

"I think (North) definitely had some competitive edges to them, but I don't think we played to our full potential as well."

That's something that will get tested more and more as the win streak continues for the 12-0 Panthers.

"I feel like we're showing everyone the hard work that we're putting in in the gym," Reynolds said. "The way we're able to take what we built on last year and continue to grow and be really successful this season."

The record is still perfect, but there are still flaws to work on.

South's had some big wins during its run, including a five-setter (with a reverse sweep) at 3A power Northview and overpowered Brownstown Central 25-18, 25-16, 25-12, their first win over the Braves since 2022.

Each win just makes the target on their backs bigger. South is 40-7 since the beginning of the 2025 season.

"I feel like definitely after we beat Brownstown, it was a big confidence boost to us," Reynolds said. "That was exciting for us, and I feel like we're just going to keep growing the streak. But we also need to remember the streak doesn't really matter; we just want to make sure we're really strong for sectionals."

Adding to the excitement level, there seemed to be a game within a game all night as Reynolds and North junior outside Olivia Bargen (13 kills) took turns seeing who could hit the hardest screamer.

"I'm glad we got to see a big swing tonight," Abplanalp said. "That's the first game we've seen someone really put the ball away. But I'm really proud of our defense. Even if it wasn't a perfect up-ball, that we were scrapping and played well."

Bargen is leading the Cougars in kills this year and showed why.

"She was determined to come in this year and be an all-around outside," Ferachi said. "She's put in the extra reps, the extra work. She's got the headspace for it. She wants to be a leader for our team. So that's 90% of the battle right there to be the outside that she is.

"The other 10% is what she physically capable of. We love her."

The Cougars were game all night, but South, after getting past some first-set jitters/communication issues, never let North gain much traction. North would fight and hang around, coming from down 17-10 to 22-19 in Set 1, down 20-15 to 22-21 in Set 2 and down 20-13 to 21-17 in Set 3.

"We want scrappy play but calm, scrappy play," Abplanalp said. "And tonight, our emotions got the best of is a little bit, a little more chaotic. But as the sets went on, we got better at controlling that."

All three times, South polished off the sets, showing it has a killer instinct. Three kills in a row by Reynolds finished Set 1, kills by Clark, Reynolds and an ace by Neely Warner ended Set 2 and a block and three kills, the last by Reynolds, ended the night.

"We tried to stay really calm through this," Reynolds said. "We knew coming in we had to stay calm and play our game. The energy in the gym was loud, but it was fun to feed off it."

North is not focused on its 3-5 record as much as its growth over the first eight matches, which has included tough losses to Floyd Central, Brownstown, Columbus North and now South.

"You can't make your identity about your record," Ferachi said. "It's really fun to say that you're 12-0, but at the end of the day, you have to have the confidence in your team and the work that you're putting in and that's where we're at. Record has a story, but we know what our story is."

Bargen was a presence offensively all night, but it took some time to get others involved as consistently. North opened things up for Emma Rice, who responded well off the right side, while Aubrey Grupenhoff, Hollie Northcutt, Rayne Nelson and Ashley Stegmoller got some licks in as well.

"Emma asked for some feedback for what shots were open, what could she do to score for us," Ferachi said. "She made adjustments and it happened. We've got very coachable people on our team."

It just wasn't enough but North plans to change that by late October.

"None of us were dissatisfied with how hard we fought," Ferachi said. "Our response to being pushed, we were proud of how we kept going, kept attacking.

"This is the eighth game of our season, but we're thinking of the long game. So we're going to take what areas they exposed in our play and we're going to get better at it."