Wolves go the distance against Lady Reds
Leading the IKM-Manning Wolves 17-16 in set five of Thursday’s home volleyball match, the Missouri Valley Lady Reds handed the Wolves their third consecutive loss.
“We’ve got to make the right decisions at the right times and just do things right,” said Wolves Junior Anna Stangl. “We need to make sure we don’t get down because we got down by ten that set I think it was, and that hurt us a lot.”
The night started off on a high note for the Wolves as the first point of set one came from Freshman Keagan Eischeid on a kill that tied the set at one. Both teams exchanged points, but the final point of the set came when Wolves Sophomore Addisyn Bandow jumped up, spiking the ball which deflected off a Missouri Valley defender and giving the Wolves a 25-23 victory.
“We just never gave up,” Stangl said. “We were always making the right decisions in that set, but unfortunately we didn’t always, and that’s all right. We’ll learn from it.”
In set two, the Lady Reds took a 1-0 lead when Arp served the ball out of bounds. The Wolves managed to hang with the Lady Reds at one point tying the set at 16. However, the Lady Reds caught fire going on a 9-1 run to finish the set 25-17.
In set three, the Wolves got right back on track starting with a kill from Bandow for a 1-0 lead. The Wolves won the set 25-19 when Lady Reds Senior Grace Herman knocked the ball out of bounds.
In set four, the Lady Reds started off on the right foot going on a 10-3 run before Wolves head coach McKaylie Croghan called a timeout. Following the timeout, the Wolves started the bounce-back, trailing 22-17 before Lady Reds head coach Megan West called a timeout. When play resumed, the Lady Reds won the set when Eischeid tried to save a ball that deflected off Junior Grace Carroll, but couldn’t, giving the Lady Reds the 25-21 set victory.
Set five opened with Arp serving the ball that hit the net, putting the Lady Reds up 1-0, which lead to a 5-1 run. The Wolves got back on track going on a 6-2 run to tie the set at seven, forcing a timeout from West. When play resumed, both teams were in a back-and-forth affair. In the end, the Lady Reds posted their eighth win, and handed the Wolves their third loss.
Croghan spoke on how proud she was of the girls for their growth and for fighting through five sets against Missouri Valley and Treynor, along with playing four sets against Underwood, when just a few years ago, they were getting swept by those schools.
“They spend a lot of time in the offseason in the weightroom and open gyms, and that definitely helps them,” she said. “It’s hard to come up short though. We’ve got to win one of these pretty soon here.”
Saturday, the Wolves returned to action for a tournament at Carroll High School where they were one of eight schools in attendance. It was a struggle for the Wolves losing 2-0 to Carroll, and 2-1 to Newell-Fonda and Fort Dodge. They now sit at 2-6 on the season and return to action Monday for a triangular against Coon Rapids-Bayard and East Sac Country at East Sac County High School.