HUNTINGTON — You would be hard-pressed not to walk away from Saturday’s Class 4A semistate championship match at Huntington North anything short of amazed by the spectacle put on by No. 1 Fort Wayne Carroll in its 3-0 (25-21, 25-21, 25-21) dismantling of second-ranked Westfield.
The Rocks seemingly had the pieces to at least compete with the two-time defending state champions. And aside from a few unforced errors, they played a relatively clean match. They were competitive throughout, second-year coach Sean Keeve said. They blocked well, the serve-pass was fine and they fought until the bitter end.
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And yet at no point after the midway point of the opening set did it ever feel like Westfield really stood a chance, not even when the Chargers spotted them leads of five and seven in the third set.
That’s a massive testament to the Carroll defense, which averages nearly 13 digs per set. They force every extended rally into an absolute grind and make it frustratingly difficult to score on their side of the net.
It’s a “relentless” pursuit, Keeve said — the same term used by longtime Homestead coach Jessica Holtzclaw in an interview Sunday and at the beginning of the season by Plainfield coach Lori Pax, who went so far as to say Carroll’s is the best pursuit she has ever seen from a high school team.
“And their ball control is insane.”
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“They’ve got to be playing with seven players somehow,” Keeve quipped.
“I don’t understand how they just do not let you score points. The block discipline and their backcourt is unbelievable,” he continued. “It’s like you think you’ve got a point, and someone’s there flying around keeping the ball up.”
The standard is set by coach Pandy Sinish, who has been teaching relentless pursuit the past couple seasons. The fifth-year coach “brings something out” in her players, Holtzclaw said of her cross-town counterpart.
Pandy Sinish is the mastermind and while she has talent across her entire lineup, it’s junior libero Cala Haffner who’s the face of this group; the one who elevates them to elite status.
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I texted Hamilton Southeastern coach Jason Young during the second set Saturday night to ask him why these Chargers — the ones who ended his team’s two-year run atop 4A in 2024 — are so dominant.
Haffner is the best libero in the country and Sarah Stegall is the best outside in the state, he replied. “No one is close.”
Young added in a subsequent text: “Haffner has a legitimate claim as the best to play high school ball. Ever.”
That’s not hyperbole.
Homestead has been swept by Carroll six times over the past two seasons and is 0-8 in the series since 2024. Posed with the same question about the Chargers, Holtzclaw also pointed to Haffner and didn’t dispute Young’s suggestion of Haffner being one of the — if not the — all-time greats in state history, and neither have the other coaches I’ve exchanged messages with since Saturday.
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“You’re not getting any ball to the floor without Cala touching it first,” Holtzclaw said. “She’s that good.”
The 5-9 libero, who committed to Texas last summer, has 317 digs, 57 aces and 237 receptions on the season, and 1,202 digs, 177 aces and 1,039 receptions for her career. She’s a two-time state champion and has won multiple gold medals on the international circuit while representing Team USA, most recently in the NORCECA U19 Continental Championship in July (she was named MVP) and U23 Pan American Cup.
Haffner’s range, volleyball IQ — a “sixth sense,” if you will — dogged refusal to give up on a ball and pure athleticism leaves opponents with “maybe 20 feet” of court to try and score on because she’s controlling the rest of the square footage, Holtzclaw said.
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“You literally have to train your hitters to go for that back right corner over and over and over again,” she explained. “And at the end of the day, Pandy has figured that out and moved her right back over into that corner in a rotational defense, while Cala takes up the other 50 to 65% of the court. It’s really difficult to find a spot where she does not affect the game.”
Your service has to be nearly perfect and you have to be willing to “go against the grain” and attack their outside hitters the entire time, Holtzclaw said. And even then, Carroll’s attackers are capable passers, so if junior Katelyn Peters and the Notre Dame-bound Stegall are dialed in: “You’re done.”
You can try to keep them out of system by ripping balls at setter Elli Oskey while she’s playing back row, but if Haffner wasn’t a libero, she would be a setter, the same position as her older sister, former Purdue Fort Wayne setter Taya Haffner. So she’s able to negate any precieved advantages there.
To that end, Westfield seemingly extended the second set Saturday on a Blair Benner block. But Peters managed to get a foot underneath the ball at the net, deflecting it to a (somehow) perfectly positioned Haffner, who deflected the ball back to her teammate for a set-clinching kill.
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“The moment you have (Haffner’s) presence step onto the court … there’s automatically a level of intimidation,” Holtzclaw said, explaining how it starts with the libero and spreads throughout the lineup.
“It’s something to behold because if you’ve ever been around that young lady, she’s phenomenally down to earth,” the longtime coach continued. “She’s very humble and a teenager in every way, shape and form. But when she steps onto the volleyball court, she’s another animal. It’s wild to watch her.”
The caliber of Carroll’s block further elevates Haffner’s effectiveness. Addi Sparks, a 5-10 sophomore, and the aforementioned Oskey, who also plays on the right side, have combined for 154 blocks, while 5-10 middle Macie Reith and Stegall have 50 and 45 blocks, respectively.
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That crew received a considerable boost in regionals with the return of middle Paityn Lauck. The 6-foot junior, who missed nearly two months with a back injury, played full matches at semistate, totaling 10 kills on .562 hitting and five kills vs. Penn, and six kills plus three kills vs. Westfield.
“She’s another one that just loves to murder the ball,” Holtzclaw said of Lauck, whom she coached as a 9-year-old. “And the fact she’s back and feeling better … goodness gracious. She makes a world of difference.”
Fort Wayne Carroll’s Paityn Lauck and Sarah Stegall
That leaves Carroll’s attack, which is led by the other player Young mentioned in his assessment: Sarah Stegall. The 6-foot pin was sidelined by injury her sophomore season, then marked her return last season by tallying 270 kills on .352 hitting. She replaced 2025 Indiana Miss Volleyball Bailey Sinish (now at IU Indy) and has fully embraced her role as the team’s No. 1 hitter this fall, throwing down a career-high 463 kills on .360 hitting.
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Stegall’s presence was unmistakable on opening weekend (32 kills vs. Westfield and Plainfield) and she took over at semistate last Saturday, racking up 34 kills on .400 hitting.
“She just continues to step up into a bigger role and bigger moments,” Sinish said. “I’m so proud of her and so happy for her. … I’m excited she’s getting this moment again.”
Look further down the lineup and you see the pieces for the future on the attack. Peters is hitting .264 and has 245 kills, while sophomore setter/right side Emma Frisinger has 148 kills (and 93 assists). Sparks has 127 kills, Reith has 99 and freshman Elyse Peters has 96.
As a team, Carroll had hit .320 or better in nine of 10 matches entering Saturday, and boasts a team hitting percentage of .311 on the season (13.7 kills per set).
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“They’re just so scrappy and have so many good players all around,” Westfield senior Louisville commit Carsyn Comer said. “Even players whose names you may not know, they’re all studs, all the way down their bench. You could probably put anyone in and they would still be an amazing team. I have so much respect for Carroll and that program and how they’ve built it over these years. And their outsides — no matter where you set up a block, they can go around it. They’re just all studs. It’s a tough team for anyone to beat.”
Carroll will face Center Grove in the 4A state final Saturday (7:30 p.m. at Gainbridge Fieldhouse).
The Chargers are looking to join Muncie Central as the only two teams in IHSAA history to 3-peat in 4A. The Bearcats won three straight titles under Dave Shondell from 1997-99 (first three years of class volleyball).
Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen. Get IndyStar’s high school coverage sent directly to your inbox with the High School Sports newsletter.
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STATE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES
Nov. 7
CLASS 1A: Rossville (28-7) vs. Lutheran (26-7), noon
CLASS 2A: Benton Central (26-6) vs Heritage Christian (22-9), 2:30 p.m.
CLASS 3A: West Noble (32-3) vs. No. 18 Tri-West (30-6), 5 p.m.
CLASS 4A: No. 1 Carroll (35-1) vs. No. 6 Center Grove (34-4), 7:30 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Why’s Carroll volleyball so elite? Cala Haffner, relentless pursuit, Sarah Stegall
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
