Lady Lynx rally to dismantle Tigers in five sets
By:
Jill Meier, Journal editor
Jill Meier/BV Journal
Taylor Stemen keeps a watchful eye on the ball during Brandon Valley’s 3-2 Eastern South Dakota Conference victory against Harrisburg.
Lady Lynx volleyball coach Marette Grage described Tuesday’s 3-2 victory over a familiar Eastern South Dakota Conference opponent – the Harrisburg Tigers – “was good and bad and everything in between.”
“But when it comes down to it, we pulled it out and claimed the win and that shows we’re playing with more confidence and that we can do it,” said Grage, whose team improved to 5-2 on the year and 4-0 in the ESD.
Brandon Valley kept the Tigers (2-4) on their heels in the first two sets to churn out 25-21 and 25-23 victories.
Then, the wheels fell off, and the next two set victories went the way of the Tigers, 18-25 and 10-25, dictating the need for the fifth – and match-deciding – set.
“They woke up,” Grage said, and at the same time BV’s serve receive became stagnant.
“(We) struggled with that the whole night and we weren’t in system very much. Even when we were playing well, which caused us not to get three options for attacks and made it easier for them to set up defensively against us,” Grage said. “I’m hopeful we’ll start out with strong serve receive and we can go get O’G.”
The momentum the Tigers built in the prior two set victories carried well into the fifth. With their backs against the wall, the Lynx chipped away at the Tigers’ sizeable lead. Trailing 14-12, Liz Kopp found the magic as she reeled off four consecutive points to send the Tigers packing behind the 16-14 victory.
“It was a high-pressure situation,” Grage said. “For Liz to come in and serve four great serves in a row for us to win was amazing. It was a good way to end that match and it was awesome.”
The Tigers have long been a team the Lynx have had their fair share of struggles with. Grage attributes it to Harrisburg’s aggressive-style of play.
“They’re very aggressive, deep servers and they seem to get into our heads at times,” she said. “But I was proud of how we came out of the fifth set. … It wasn’t the prettiest match that we’ve played all year by far. Stats-wise, we weren’t strong on our hitting, but we found other ways to score.”
BV’s kill leader was junior Taylor Stemen, who had seven to her credit, along with 21 digs. Four others – Kazi Ellingson, Morgan Hunt, Kopp and Hannah Parliament – all had five kills in the match.
Matching Stemen’s work in the back row were Jenna Stengel and Abby Finch, who registered 21 and 20 digs, respectively.
BV’s blocking efforts paid dividends. Parliament and Hunt each recorded a pair of solo blocks, while Ellingson got a hand on one solo and two assisted blocks.
Stengel and Kopp finished the night with 14 and 10 set assists, respectively, and Josey Wickersham dropped in a pair of ace serves.
For Harrisburg, Abby Meister and Reese Jansa fired 12 and eight kills at the Lynx. In the ESD loss, Devanie Andre had 27 digs and Abby Meister had 14 digs and four ace serves. Hannah Healy gave a solid effort in her nine blocks, along with Mercedes Carris’ 21 set assists.
The Lynx claimed victory in all of the underclassmen matches, with the exception of the freshmen B team, which lost 2-1. BV’s junior varsity and freshmen A teams scored 2-0 victories, and the sophomore Lady Lynx took the match by a 2-1 tally.
