For the past five years, the Region 4 volleyball championship has come down to two teams – Greenwood and South Warren.

The Lady Gators and Spartans hope to extend that to six straight region title games this season, but they first have to get through a tough District 14 slate. Greenwood will be looking for a second straight region title and third in six seasons, while South Warren will try for a fourth title in six seasons.

“I think there are definitely some strong teams here,” Greenwood coach Allen Whittinghill said. “Warren East is a competitor. We saw Bowling Green at the Bluegrass Games and they looked pretty good. Everybody has got some players. It’s definitely not like it used to be … but it’s a lot of fun.”

Whittinghill brings back the core of a team that finished 36-6 last season and advanced to the quarterfinals of the state tournament.

The Lady Gators will have to replace setter Julia Kennedy, but they return senior hitters Annee Lasley and Katie Howard and libero Anna Hewitt.

Sophomore Meg Gore will take over setter duties.

“It should be pretty fun,” Whittinghill said. “We’ll have a lot of growing pains with a sophomore setter, but things will come around I am sure.”

South Warren brings back plenty of experience from a team that finished 24-13 last season.

“I’m excited,” South Warren coach Justin Griffin said. “We return a lot of our players from last year. I think they are excited getting back and getting started. We’ve made a lot of progress in preseason. I’m looking forward to getting in the gym and getting those matches started. We are just trying to keep getting better throughout the course of the year.”

Junior setter Sydney Clayton is back along with seniors Lexi Button, Erin Nerland and Sophie Pemberton.

Sophomores Maddie Rockrohr and Kaylee Gifford are among the newcomers who could make an impact for the Spartans.

“I think all of our seniors have had plenty of experience at this point and of course that junior class got quite a bit of experience last year,” Griffin said. “Hopefully we can start putting the pieces together to be really competitive this year.

“I just like our team. I think we have a real united team this year that is just glad they can go out and compete with each other.”

Bowling Green will bring back experience as well, although it will be a little younger with three freshmen starting. That includes libero Kenzie Austin and Elizabeth Maglinger, who played pivotal roles in last year’s team that finished 18-17.

Junior outside hitter Anna Neal also returns.

“Even though we are young, we do have varsity experience,” Bowling Green coach Amy Wininger said. “It will be a tight district, I think. Every practice counts. We are really emphasizing that everything matters.

“It’s a great team to coach so far.”

Warren East brings will have seven seniors, including Kendall Bloyd, Morgan Dobelstein and Jordan Fulkerson from a team that finished 22-15 last season.

Warren Central also brings back a large group of upperclassmen, five seniors and seven juniors, for first-year coach Elle Ford. The Lady Dragons finished 2-17 last season and have lost 56 straight to district opponents.

“It’s a daunting task to try to keep up with (Greenwood and South Warren) but we are going to try our hardest,” Ford said. “Even if it doesn’t go the way we want it to, we can’t be mad because we are still trying. It’s a building year.”