No 13 New London falls in 3

FORT MADISON — The No. 13 New London volleyball team had shades of brilliance on Monday night in the Class 1A Region 8 semifinal, but the Tigers weren’t able to take any sets from No. 5 Holy Trinity Catholic on Monday night.

The Crusaders scored three-straight come-from-behind set victories to sweep the Tigers out of the postseason. Holy Trinity won the match 25-20, 25-17, 25-17.

“The thing we struggled with a lot were the long rallies,” New London head coach Linsdsey Johnson said. “If you win a long rally, that gives your team a lot of momentum, and we struggled to get some offense going when we were stuck in those rallies.”

There were quite a few of those in the opening set. The Tigers and Crusaders came out swinging in the most back-and-forth set played, and the closest final score.

The Tigers jumped out to an early four-point lead in the first set. New London scored five straight to take a 5-1 lead, capped off by a Morgan Jones kill.

New London held three separate four-point leads in the first set, including an 11-7 advantage. Holy Trinity would score the next five points to take a 12-11 lead.

The Tigers rallied back from their own four-point deficit to take a 20-19 advantage, but Holy Trinity ended the opening set on a 6-0 run.

New London ran out to a four-point lead in the second set. Natalie Burden nailed back-to-back aces to give the Tigers an 8-4 lead, but it was all Crusaders from that point out. Holy Trinity finished the set on a 21-9 run.

New London held yet another early lead in the third set but the Crusaders were too much. Burden did all she could in the final set, tallying seven kills in the 25-17 loss.

“Natalie gets up,” Johnson said. “If you're a small player, you've got to be able to do it, and you've also got to be able to hit your shots. That's something that she can do really well.”

Burden led New London with 15 kills. Sophie Malott had seven, and Tysann Gipple tallied five.

Aliyah Christensen led the team with 17 assists and finished with 19 digs, not a bad final night for the lone Tiger senior to see the floor.

“It’s been a fun run,” Johnson said. “She was a selfless player, and I’m really going to miss her.”

Emma Nye led the Tigers with 40 digs. Elly Manning had 17 digs and 13 assists.

New London ended the 2021 season at 26-14. Holy Trinity (31-10) plays Lamoni (29-4) in the district final at Ottumwa on Wednesday.