New London falls in regional semis

Andy Krutsinger

GTNS News Team

FORT MADISON ? No. 12 New London did what they had to do early in their regional semifinal match against No. 5 Holy Trinity on Thursday night but a Crusader comeback in the first set helped propel HTC to a sweep.

The Crusaders came back from a four-point deficit late in the first set to take it 25-21 and won both of the next two games, 25-15, to knock out New London.

After a quick 3-1 start from HTC to start the first set, the Tigers came back to tie the set multiple times and sprung out to a small lead when the scores reached double digits.

The Tigers stretched their first set lead to 16-12 thanks in part to their play at the net, led by Breanna Mettler.

With New London five points away from a first-set win at 20-16, disaster struck for the Tigers.

A New London kill attempt seemed to go off the fingertips of a Crusader blocker, which would have given the Tigers a five-point lead.

Officials ruled that the ball was not tipped and rewarded the point to HTC. The momentum swing turned the game around and sprung the Crusaders to a big run, which eventually gave them a 21-20 lead.

The Tigers tried to regroup despite the loud home crowd for HTC, but they were only able to score one more point in the game, falling 25-21.

?The first set was our best,? said Tiger head coach Maureen Heath after the game. ?I thought our game plan was working very well, serving (and) on offense (and) our block play was doing very well at the net.?

New London found their groove for a while in the second set. Sophie Lounsbury had a big kill early in the match to cut a Crusader lead to one point at 9-8, but HTC scored 10 of the next 12 points to take their biggest lead, at 19-11.

Ashley Birdsell stopped the big run with a kill but New London couldn?t catch up and went down, 25-15 to put the Crusaders at a 2-0 advantage.

HTC parlayed the momentum into a huge run to start the third set, scoring eight of the first nine points before Birdsell and Mettler scored on back-to-back kills to cut it to 8-3.

The Crusaders continued to pour it on and threatened to take a double-digit lead early. With the game at 17-8, a Crusader net error and an ace by Camryn Blint helped the Tigers to cut it to seven points, at 17-10.

HTC, however, continued to pound the ball at the net and New London couldn?t respond, losing eight of the last 13 points to fall, 25-15.

Heath said the Crusaders were able to adjust from the first set and make it hard on New London in the next two.

?I think they stepped up and started doing things we expected out of them in the first game,? she said. ?For example, (Taylor) Boeding and her serving runs, her short serves and things like that.?

Mettler led New London with 12 kills on the night. Kaylor Schulte had seven. Lounsbury had three, and Birdsell finished with two.

Savannah Sutherland had 22 of the Tigers? 23 assists on the night. The other came from Alexa Wenger.

The Tigers will lose one player to graduation, but everyone else can come back next year, including six juniors.

?Our young kids have made some great strides,? Heath said. ?It?s amazing how far they?ve come if you think way back to late August. I look forward to great things from them next year.?