WACO falls to Wolves

WAYLAND ? It was a surreal feeling for the WACO and Winfield-Mt. Union volleyball teams to go without playing each other in the regular season, but the two rivals finally got a showdown in the first round of the regional tournament on Tuesday night.

In a hard-fought four-set match, it was W-MU who walked out with a victory, knocking the Warriors out, 3-1 (25-19, 17-25, 25-17, 25-22).

The first set of the night showed how competitive the rest of the match would be. The two teams went toe-to-toe for the first half of the set, and things were tied 14-14 before W-MU made their run.

Pearl Krieger-Coble got things going for the Wolves when she broke the tie with a kill. W-MU followed that with a big run, scoring seven of the next 10 points before a WACO timeout.

Lexee Hartsock had four kills down the stretch in the first set, including the last two, which helped the Wolves finish off the 25-19 win.

The Warriors came out on fire in the second set. They jumped out to a 5-1 run before the Wolves fought back to tie the game at 6-6. Much like the first set, the first 28 points were split evenly and it was 14-14 before anybody was able to get separation.

This time it was WACO who had the big run. The Warriors scored six points in a row on McKenna White?s serves streak, which included a big ace. Halle Kissell had two big kills during the run, including the one to make it 20-16.

Krieger-Coble ended WACO?s run with a kill of her own, but the Warriors finished the Wolves off behind two late kills by Molly Edgar, an ace by Kissell and a block by Mayme Hinh to end it at 25-17.

W-MU bounced right back in the third set to jump out to a 7-2 lead, but yet another WACO run made it a tight one. Kristen Conley scored a kill a few points later to cut the lead to 10-9 and force a Wolves timeout.

The timeout proved to be a good one as W-MU got back on track and pulled away from the Warriors to win by their biggest margin of the night, taking set three 25-17.

W-MU parlayed their third-set win into another huge run to start the fourth. The Wolves led 9-2 early on, but WACO stormed back once more, eventually taking an 18-17 lead.

Kayla Coberley had a big play to tie the set with a tricky kill on a set that dropped in to make it 18-18. The Wolves then scrapped out enough points to take a 23-22 lead before Hartsock ended it with back-to-back big kills.

WACO head coach Jay Coble reflected on the season after the game, and talked about what his four seniors (Kissell, Hinh, White and Edgar) brought to his program.

?I?ve coached them since they were seventh-graders and they won?t be replaced,? Coble said. ?They are just special kids. For as short as we are, they have to play a different brand of volleyball, and they?ve done a great job.?

Coble also talked about the strides his younger players had made. In particular, he praised the performance of junior defensive specialist Kat Adair, calling it ?the match of her life.?

?She served the ball hard, I mean Rockets,? Coble said. ?She was so on fire. For a DS to play the way she played tonight was outstanding.?

Edgar and Hinh led the team with six and five kills respectively. Kissell dished out 18 assists.

White was the team?s defensive leader with 27 digs. Hinh had 20 digs. Kissell had 16 digs and Adair finished with 12.

W-MU will turn their attention toward fifth-ranked Holy Trinity. The teams have played twice this year, with HTC winning both, 2-0.

The Wolves and Crusaders will face off at Holy Trinity high school in Ft. Madison on Monday, Oct. 24, at 7 p.m.