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Warriors win conference thriller
HLV rallies from down 2-0
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MONTEZUMA — It was a SICL West volleyball thriller Monday night in Montezuma.
The HLV Warriors defeated the Montezuma Bravettes in five sets after being down 2-0.
The crowd saw great play on both sides, especially from Montezuma’s Sydnee Burgess and HLV’s Ema Roberts.
“We knew being down 2-0 was a mental game at that point,” HLV head coach Kayla Chizek said. “We needed to dig down deep and that what’s they did. I was really proud of them.”
Set one began with a lot of back-and-forth early.
The Bravettes built up a 19-12 lead as the Warriors struggled to execute.
Multiple kills from Roberts got the lead down to two before the Bravettes finished the set, winning 25-17 after a block from Burgess.
The defense of Burgess in the middle for the Bravettes provided a challenge all evening for the Warriors.
In set two, after a Roberts kill and block, the Warriors were up 4-1 early.
Kills from Chloe Snook and Burgess tied things back up.
The Bravettes went on a short run to build a 10-6 lead before the Warriors took the lead back — at 12-11 — off a Nicole Gensley kill.
After getting up 16-13, the Bravettes went on a 12-1 run to finish set two, winning 25-17.
Burgess had multiple kills and blocks in the run, and Snook and Lily Ferry both served aces.
All the momentum was on the Bravettes’ side heading into set three.
Lily Randall stepped up to the plate and delivered in set three for the Warriors with a total of six kills.
The lead was 17-10, and the Warriors hoped to prevent what happened the previous set — allowing a late rally from the Bravettes.
A block and kill from Burgess cut the lead to five, but a kill from Roberts and a miscue brought it to back to seven and the Warriors comfortably won set three, 25-16.
The most entertaining and competitive set of the night came in set four.
Bravettes miscues and kills from Jordyn Meniicucci and Roberts gave the Warriors a 7-1 lead to start.
The Warriors kept their cushion throughout most of the match with a complete team effort.
Six different players had kills in the set.
“We had to count on different people at different moments.” Chizek said. “It was a complete effort by everybody.”
A Randall ace and out-of-bounds shot put the score at 20-12, but the Bravettes rallied again and made things interesting.
Back-to-back blocks from Burgess, a serve error and another miscue made things 21-16.
Serving errors and trouble receiving serves was a problem for both teams at times.
The lead ws cut to two after a Kylee Larmore kill made things 22-20.
The Warriors ended the set with three kills from Roberts, Randall and Gensley to win 25-21, forcing a set five.
A close fifth set saw the Warriors pull away late.
A Menicucci kill made things 8-7, and the Warriors did not look back from there.
Gensley kills on three of the last four points sealed the set at 15-9.
Roberts, Randall and Gensley all finished with double-digit kills for the Warriors in the match.
“The things that we did well in the first two sets we did not do well in the next three,” Montezuma head coach Tim Burgess said.
“Our passing wasn’t good and it was hard to get our offense going. Both teams played their hearts out.”
The match was competitive from start to finish, and these two teams have a good chance of seeing each other again in the conference tournament.
“We just got to get that next step to win big games,” Burgess added. “We’re going to continue to grow.”
For the Warriors, they moved to 3-0 in conference play following the win.
