Part of 11 district titles as an assistant coach under his wife Holly Whittinghill, Allen Whittinghill got his first district title as a head coach Thursday with the Greenwood volleyball team after outlasting South Warren 3-1 (25-22, 23-25, 25-14, 25-22) in the District 14 championship at Bowling Green High School.

Greenwood (32-5) survived a shaky second set to regain control and claim the district crown for the second year in a row, giving Whittinghill his first in his first season as head coach.

Whittinghill said it’s always fun to be part of a district championship.

“I hope I had a lot to do with those, too,” he said of Holly Whittinghill’s district titles. “I know she is giving me the eye up there in the stands. I am sure she has a lot of opinions about what could have gone on differently, but she is great to bounce things off of. She’s not here on the court, but she is a good sounding board for ideas and stuff we need to work on.”

Greenwood swept South Warren twice in the regular season, but the Spartans put up a strong fight Thursday – forcing the Lady Gators to dig deep and hold on for the victory.

The Lady Gators broke a 13-all tie in game one with five straight points – including three kills from Katie Howard – to surge in front. South Warren (22-10) battled back to tie the score at 19 but a kill by Howard and an ace from Anna Hewitt gave Greenwood the lead for good.

South Warren took control early in game two with seven straight points that gave the Spartans a 12-5 lead. Greenwood tried to chip away, pulling within 24-23 before Erin Nerland’s kill evened the match at a game apiece.

“I thought we were a little tight, a little nervous,” Whittinghill said. “Usually when you miss a lot of serves you are overly nervous. I told them, ‘You love volleyball. I love volleyball. Let’s play it like we love the game instead of being so nervous.’”

Greenwood regained control with a dominant game three, fueled by six kills from Howard.

“She really sees the court well,” Whittinghill said. “I feel like she is one of the best young players in the state. She has a sense of volleyball you can’t teach. She sees it all.”

The teams exchanged the lead five times in game four – with South Warren up 22-21 before Greenwood scored the final five points to close the match and clinch the district title.

“The district win feels really good,” Hewitt said. “We have been focusing a lot on discipline and detail in practice. We didn’t play our best tonight, but we are looking forward to region and hopefully getting to the region championship game.”

Howard, who was named the tournament’s most valuable player, paced the offense with 31 kills.

“When (they told me) 31 kills I thought it was for the entire week,” Howard said. “I didn’t know it was just for this match. It’s a great accomplishment and it’s great for my teammates because we passed really well to get the sets that we needed to put it down.”

Emmie Bender added nine kills, while Julia Kennedy had 53 assists and four aces.

Nerland led South Warren with 17 kills, while Sydney Clayton had 35 assists.

“I was really pleased with how we came and fought tonight,” South Warren coach Justin Griffin said. “We played pretty well. We just have to clean up a few things and move on to next week at region and see what happens.”

Kennedy, Hewitt and Nerland joined Howard on the all-tournament team, along with Greenwood’s Annee Lasley, South Warren’s Sophie Pemberton and Lexi Button, Bowling Green’s Riley Marshall and Anna Neal, Warren East’s Kendall Bloyd and Grace Ray, and Warren Central’s T’Ona Shaver.

Greenwood and South Warren both advance to the Region 4 Tournament, which begins Monday at Franklin-Simpson. Pairings will be determined Saturday morning.