Wolves knocked out by Notre Dame

WINFIELD - The 2019 volleyball season came to an end for the short-handed Winfield-Mt. Union Wolves on Tuesday night. The Wolves, who at one point were ranked in the Class 1A top 15, have been marred by injury this year, and a red-hot Notre Dame team added the insult with a 25-19, 25-13, 25-15 win in the regional opener.

'It's been a difficult season for us to be able to maintain our consistency,” said head coach David Pieart. 'At times, we've been absolutely brilliant. Other times, we've struggled. (Notre Dame) is peeking at the right time, (and) It didn't help to catch a team that has found itself.”

The Nikes came into the regional openerhaving won their last five games, including one against eighth-ranked Holy Trinity, the team that was awaiting Tuesday night's winner in the quarterfinals.

W-MU traded punches with the Nikes in the firset set but Notre Dame began to pull away in the middle of the game. W-MU did hold a 6-5 lead, but the Nikes went on a 7-2 run to take a 12-7 lead before the first timeout, and never relinquished the lead.

The Wovles cut what was as much as a five point lead down to three, at 19-16, but they could never get even. Notre Dame was able to win the set 25-19 despite two kills each from Anna Hudson, Madie Anderson, Keely Malone and Melina Oepping.

The two teams split the first 10 points of the second set, but Notre Dame once again began to pull away midway throught he game. Leading by just three, at 13-10, Notre Dame went on an 11-2 run to double up the Wolves at 24-12. Two points later, the Nikes were up 2-0 in sets.

Notre Dame threw their haymakers at the beginning of the third set. The Nikes scored the first six points of the game and 11 of the first 12, leading by double digits as early as 11-1.

W-MU made a good run at it. The Wolves cut the lead all the way down to four poitns, at 15-11, forcing a Nike timeout.

After the timeout, however, Notre Dame turned it back on. They scored the next three points and never looked back, eventually working the lead back to double digits and finishing out the night with at 25-15 victory.

W-MU was co-led in kills by Hudson and Jami Wilkerson, both of whom had four. Oepping finished the night with three. Hudson added two blocks to her total and Malone had one.

Kayla Edwards had nine assists in the loss. Malone finished the game with six. Wilkerson finished with 15 digs, and Kyndal Townsley had 10.

Keetyn Townsley was the leading server for W-MU. She was 8-9 with two aces. Wilkerson went 10-10, and Carlee Sloan went 8-8.

The Wolves finished the year at 18-13. They'll lose just one senior, Hudson, and return the rest of the squad next year, including injured star Jenna Buffington, who was dominant early in the year before going down with a knee injury.

'We're losing Anna, and she's been an offensive and blocking force for us, so we're going to have to try and fill her shoes,” Coach Pieart says. 'But we're going to return the other 12 players that started at some point in the season, so that should give us at least some experience to build on.”

Notre Dame will look to shock Holy Trinity again in next week's regional quarterfinals when they take them on in Ft. Madison. Other teams advancing in Class 1A Region 8 were Seymour, Wayne County, New London, Keota, WACO and North Mahaska.