Huskies cruise past Falcons

It was a strong start to the regional tournament for the Highland volleyball team.

Despite a slight hiccup in the early portion of the second game, the Huskies cruised to a three-set sweep of Louisa-Muscatine, claiming set victories of 25-11, 25-14 and 25-14 to advance to Monday?s second round.

?I think we started out with a bang and kind of fizzled in the middle,? Highland head coach Christine Rath said. ?We got into our bad habits of tipping and got a little lazy. At the end of the second game we started picking it up more, and in the third game, we started hitting the ball again. When we stop attacking the ball is when we get into trouble.?

It was a balanced night for the Huskies, as they had six girls finish the match with at least three kills, led by Aly Stokes, who had six.

Kelsey Hora, Brylee Carolan and Bailey Harmston all finished the match with five kills, as the Huskies earned the postseason victory.

?We really wanted to put the ball down tonight,? Harmston said. ?The team we play next is going to be a lot harder, so we have to put the ball down more.?

Serving was a key for the Huskies on Monday night, especially in the first game, when Sydney Black helped construct a 10-0 run, putting the Huskies up 17-4.

That stretch forced Louisa-Muscatine to call both of its timeouts, but that didn?t disrupt Black?s rhythm.

?It kind of motivates me (when they call timeout),? Black said. ?It makes me think, ?oh wow, our team has intimidated them and they needed that timeout for a reason.??

Black finished the night a perfect 15-for-15 on serve attempts, notching a pair of aces.

?She?s always had a good serve,? Rath said. ?When she goes back to serve, I?m expecting two or three points off of her, because she has a serve that must just move at the last second, because she sure gets a lot of aces with it. We depend on her a lot. She?s one of the top servers on the team.?

The Huskies fell into an early hole in the second game, finding themselves down 4-1 to the Falcons.

Highland rallied for a 10-6 lead, but L-M battled back to tie things at 10, forcing a Huskie timeout.

?The message was to play your game,? Rath said about the timeout. ?Sometimes you play to the level of the team you re playing against, and we started the tipping and following in their footsteps. The timeout was to get us back into our game again.?

The Huskies responded to their coach?s message, and closed out the set, outscoring L-M 15-4 the rest of the way.

In the third set, Harmston picked up three of her five kills on the night, as Highland jumped out to a 12-4 lead.

The Huskies kept their foot on the pedal the rest of the way, earning the 25-11 final set win.

?We?ve played better, but the goal tonight was to run plays and work on hitting,? Black said after the win. ?We need to work on moving our feet and get our kills down.?

The Huskies advance into Monday?s regional quarterfinal, when they take on Class 2A, No. 8 ranked North Cedar, who had a bye for the first round.

Highland knows they?ll have their work cut out for them, but they are going into the game with confidence.

?We just need to get back to our game,? Rath said. ?We have to keep moving and have confidence. We need to hit the ball hard, and we?ve done some of that, but we need to get back to where we were at the beginning of the season.?

First serve in Clarence is set for 7 p.m. on Monday night.