After a bit of a sluggish start that made coach Thom Hayes slightly nervous, the Trinity Lutheran girls soccer team regrouped at halftime and pulled away for a convincing 6-0 triumph over Austin Thursday night.

The win in the first round of Sectional play propels the Cougars into Saturday’s final against host Providence at 2 p.m.

The match ticked along at 0-0 for much of the first half, but Emma Myers began easing Hayes’ edginess with a goal before the intermission. That 1-0 lead loomed large and soon got bigger.

"They came ready to play," Hayes said of Austin.

After that the Cougars loosened up and poured it on.

"We put it together," Hayes said. "I don’t know if we were nervous.

Kailene Cockerham finished with three goals for Trinity, Myers scored another and added two assists. Flossie Cooper scored the other goal. Sarah Lemming contributed an assist. 

Now 6-7, Hayes is glad his team is still playing in the tournament and he likes the way it broke things open in the second half.

Trinity Lutheran outshot Austin 14-4.

"I’m definitely pleased with the way they turned it around," he said of the Cougars. "We definitely have a good chance (Saturday), if we play well."

Brownstown volleyball still hot

As Sectional volleyball play approaches next week, defending 3A state champion Brownstown Central seems to be playing sharper all the time.

Thursday night, the Braves polished off Salem in three straight sets, 25-14, 25-18, 25-16. The win moved Brownstown to 17-9 on the season.

Reagan Nuss stood out serving with four aces.

Three players were major "killers" on the attack with Kendra McCory leading the team with 15 kills. Kayla Guthrie with eight kills and Kelsey Wischmeier provided six more kills.

Trinity volleyball up to 25 wins

The Cougars bested New Albany, 25-22, 23-25, 25-8, 19-25, 16-14, Thursday night, raising the squad’s record to 25-5 on the regular season.

Sydney Jaynes amassed 21 kills, Kennedy Hoffman had 12, Bailey Tabeling 10, and Stella Kleffman eight. Ruth Bingham turned in three aces.

Kamzi Gross collected 27 digs, Kleffman 17, Bingham and Elly Carter 11 each. Bailey Reynolds was busy with 46 assists.

Seymour volleyball loses to Bloomington South

The Owls could not keep up with Bloomington South on the volleyball court Thursday night and dropped a straight-sets match, 25-13, 25-11, 25-19.

The defeat dropped Seymour to 15-15 overall on the season.

Olivia Fish came through with five kills for the Owls and Maggie Connell added four. Paige Lawrence’s 9 assists led in that category.