WACO falls to WB

WEST BURLINGTON - The WACO High School volleyball team stunned West Burlington Thursday, knocking the Lady Falcons from the SEI Super Conference Tournament and preventing the Lady Falcons from making a return trip to the finals on Saturday night at Loren Walker Arena.

On Monday, it was West Burlington's turn to catch the Warriors by surprise, winning a 25-18, 25-22, 25-18 sweep of the Warriors in an SEI South Division match.

The first time around it was WACO who controlled the play. This time, it was West Burlington (8-10, 3-1) which was in control from start to finish.

'I think they were probably shocked at how prepared we were for them on Thursday,” WACO coach Jay Coble said. 'We're not used to Monday night volleyball.”

WACO (15-7 overall, 1-2 South Division) took the early lead in all three games. Costly hitting errors and untimely service errors hurt the Warriors all night.

'It was 22-22 in Game Two and we miss a serve and then we have two tips out of bounds and they didn't even swing to get the last three points. That really hurts,” Coble said.

WACO raced to a 4-0 lead in the second game on a trio of kills by Morgan Graber and an ace by Ellie Miles. That game featured eight ties and three lead changes. A pair of WACO hitting errors and a service error gave the second game to West Burlington.

WACO, which trailed by five points on three separate occasions, rallied to take a 16-15 lead in the third game after a kill by Molly McLaughlin, but could do no more.

Morgan Graber led WACO with 16 kills, while McLaughlin had eight kills. Laney Graber, who earlier this season surpassed 1,000 career sets, put up 25 Monday.

'(Morgan) kind of kept us in the game, but then we make some mental mistakes and we turn the ball over and the next thing you know, they get ahead of us,” Coble said. 'Laney Graber getting 1,000 assists. She set the school record for assists in a career. She's done nothing but bust her butt for three years now, so that's pretty cool.”

The Warriors play Cardinal Tuesday, then get last year's Class 1A state runner-up Holy Trinity Thursday.