Hanover Central can’t officially put the number “16” on its conference championship banner hanging in the gym.
But the Wildcats all but assured themselves of their third Greater South Shore Conference title in four years by knocking off favored Bishop Noll 30-28, 25-16, 16-25, 25-23 at home on Tuesday night.
Some Wildcat players dropped to their knees after the win, while the student section ran on the court and celebrated. They surrounded the Hanover Central huddle while coach Matt Bien delivered his postgame speech.
It obviously was a huge win.
“This goes a great deal toward winning conference, but there’s still three more conference games to go,” Bien said. “This win is enormous. Two of their losses are Crown Point and Valpo, so hopefully this is a boost of confidence for us.”
Senior Itzel Lagunas led the way for Hanover (19-7, 5-0) with 12 kills, while junior Sarah Spangler tallied 11 kills. Senior setter Sam Guglielmo had 43 assists and Jenny Lameka added six kills.
Spangler was playing in just her seventh match after injuring her ankle in the season opener against Gavit. Spangler suffered a second-degree sprain and was out until Sept. 22.
Bien said her return makes the Wildcats lineup complete.
“It’s the first time she’s been close to 100 percent,” he said. “Her first (match) back was Thursday so she’s starting to round into shape and she makes us a different team.”
Spangler and her teammates marked the Bishop Noll match in the calendar so she was glad to be a part of it.
“It was a huge win,” she said. “We lost to Bishop Noll last year so we wanted this so bad.”
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The Warriors (21-3, 5-1), who were coming off a second-place finish at the prestigious Crown Point Tournament on Saturday, had to play the match without three starters.
Two girls were at a mandatory retreat, while another went home sick.
Coach Dave Rodriguez knows the match was still winnable but believes his team wasn’t prepared.
“They played great defense,” Rodriguez said of the Wildcats. “They dug everything and had a better block than I expected and serve receive, it was really hard to find a hole.
“The lesson is we have to be prepared for every opponent. I could sense it in the pregame that they were just going through the motions. We have to play everybody every night. It’s not a given.”
Rodriguez pointed out that the Warriors did not win the conference title in 2013, but wound reaching the Class 2A state championship match.
“We didn’t win conference the year we went down to state so we can rebound from this,” he said. “We want to win conference, but we want to be prepared at the end of the season too.”
Noll was led by Bella Kuechenberg, who finished with 15 kills and 20 digs. Brittany Anderson had 33 assists and nine digs, while Cristen Lee and Ashanti Frazier each recorded four blocks.
Ryan Haskell is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune.