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Washington Evening Journal
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Warriors advance to second round
Travel to ranked North Tama Wednesday
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
VICTOR — The last time these two teams played, the contest went to five sets in the SICL volleyball tournament.
That was not the case Monday night. HLV-TC swept Iowa Valley in the opening round of regional play in Class 1A Region 7.
“We moved a lot better tonight and were able to pick up a lot more tips and pushes to the corner,” HLV-TC head coach Kayla Chizek said. “Our offense was really clicking from the start.”
In set one, each team saw its leading hitter shine — Ema Roberts for the Warriors and Lydia Kriegel for the Tigers.
Roberts had a set high eight kills, and Kriegel had six.
Midway through, the score was 10-8 Warriors, and they were able to slowly pull away after that.
A run of Roberts kills and an ace from Jordyn Menicucci made it a ten-point lead. That would be the final set margin at 25-15.
Lydia Kriegel started set two with a kill for a Tigers, which was followed by a Lily Randall kill for the Warriors.
The Tigers built up a 4-1 lead and held on to the lead at 10-9 after a Kamryn Wittenback kill.
A Nicole Gensley kill tied things up, and the Warriors surged to a lead they held for the rest of the match.
Four different Warriors had kills in the set.
After a Roberts kill made the score 20-14, Randall ended the match with five straight aces, giving her team a 25-14 win.
Roberts started out with four kills in the Warriors’ first five points in set three.
Roberts had an efficient hitting night.
After a Clara Fry kill and error, the Warriors led 9-8. As they did in all three sets, the Warriors slowly pulled away in the second half.
The Warriors brought energy all nigh, completing the sweep in a 25-17 set-three victory.
“I think being super excited coming into the game was definitely a benefit for us,” Roberts said. “I think overall, that’s like our main thing, besides from the passing and hitting just trying to act as a team.”
Roberts is one of five seniors on the roster who are looking to make the most of these last few moments together.
“We’re very close this year, so it’s definitely sad knowing we’re not going to play much more volleyball together,” Roberts said.
The Warriors had 33 kills on the night, with 19 coming from Roberts. They also had seven blocks and 15 aces in a night in which they rarely trailed.
Kriegel led the Tigers with 14 kills.
The Warriors will face a tough challenge in round two of regional play, traveling to play sixth ranked North Tama Wednesday.
The Tigers end their season at 14-18 but finished strong, winning nine of their last 12 after a 5-16 start.
