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Raiders start hot; finish 4th
Powell gets first victory over ranked opponent
WILLIAMSBURG — The young Raiders showed glimpses of why the future is bright for the Williamsburg volleyball program Saturday.
The Raiders went 3-2 and placed fourth in the eight-team tournament, and Coach Brittni Powell notched her first career victory over a ranked team, defeating Class 2A No. 9 West Burlington in pool play.
What was Powell’s biggest take-away from the weekend? “Progress,” she said.
“I don’t think people understand how low we were last year across the board, nothing was going in our favor.”
The Raiders started pool play in a match against Columbus and won in two sets.
After a slow start in set one, the Raiders pulled away and won 21-15.
Set two was a set of serving, most notably for Averi Nielsen.
Nielsen scored aces on four of the last five points of the set, and the team had seven total in the 21-8 win.
The second match of pool play saw more competition facing Des Moines Lincoln.
A back-and-forth first set saw the Railsplitters pull away late, winning 21-17.
The Raiders responded by taking full control and taking sets two and three comfortably by margins of 21-13 and 15-6.
In the second, set the Raiders’ offense was in full force, executing very well with 14 total kills.
Clarissa Suhr and freshman Taylor Otte both had multiple kills.
The Raiders jumped out to a 9-3 lead in set three and finished with back-to-back aces from Nielsen’s serves.
The match of the day came in the last match of pool play against West Burlington.
All three sets were competitive from start to finish.
In the first set, the Raiders played exceptional defensively with multiple blocks including the set-winner by freshman Kylee Suhr.
Suhr also had a kill the point earlier when the score was tied 19-19.
The Falcons responded taking set two 21-18.
The set was nearly identical to the first, but after the teams tied-up at 18-18, a few Raider miscues resulted in a 3-0 run for West Burlington to end the match.
“We just have issues with errors happening here and there, people not communicating, Powell said. ”They just have to learn that consistency.“
In set three, the Raiders started hot, getting up 10-5 thanks to five kills from Otte and two from Kylee Suhr.
The Falcons weren’t going away. their feistiness brought the score to 12-11.
Two kills from Clarissa Suhr sealed the win for the Raiders, 15-12. At 3-0 in pool play, the Raiders advanced to the winner’s bracket.
Bracket play did not go as smoothly for the Raiders. Asked if fatigue placed a part, Powell said, “It 100% percent did. I could see it from the start going into the last match, but I told them I don’t want to see them play tired.”
In the semifinal match against Class 3A No. 12 West Liberty, the Raiders fell in two sets by scores of 21-15 and 21-14.
The Raiders kept the first set close midway through, but the Comets had some strong hitters that were tough to stop.
“I would’ve liked to see us go at them a little harder,” Powell said.
A rematch against West Burlington gave the Raiders a shot at third place.
The first set, as in the first match between the two teams, was back and forth until the end. West Burlington came out on top, 21-18.
Otte had four kills in the set.
The Raiders looked out of sorts in the final set of the day, falling 21-10.
Class 2A No. 3 Dyersville Beckman won the tournament, going 10-0 in sets on the day.
Regardless of the finish, Powell saw positives in the team.
“Everyone had their shining moments. We just have to be able to string things together.” Powell said.
