There was very little to differentiate between the teams when Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn entertained MMCRU in War Eagle Conference action October 15 at Hartley. After four sets, the final three being hotly contested, HMS emerged as the 3-1 winner. The set scores for the Hawks were 19-25, 25-21, 25-23 and 31-29.
“Going into the match, we knew that MMCRU would be a fairly similar team to us,” noted Hawk head coach Cheryl Kroese. “We talked about needing to make sure we covered the court well defensively and making sure we stayed aggressive offensively. We did a really nice job of that last night. The final set we were down most of the set, and at one point down 22-19. The girls stayed determined and that final set was one of those back-and-forth battles where you are glad to come out on the winning end. Very proud of the entire team…they played hard, worked together and came away with the victory!”
HMS fell behind 4-1 and later trailed 20-12 in dropping set one. A tight second set saw the teams tied at 20-20 before the Hawks scored five of the final six points to emerge victorious.
The home team got out to a 6-0 lead in set three but the Royals battled back and actually held a 20-17 advantage. The set was knotted at 22-22 when again HMS came through late, tallying three of the next four points to win.
MMCRU led the early portion of the fourth set. From the time that the Royals held an 11-9 advantage until they led 21-19 neither team was up by more than a point. MMCRU had several set points until the score was tied 26-26. From then on it was the Hawks who had several match point opportunities until finally winning the set 31-29.
Abby Douma put down 20 kills with only three errors and enjoyed a kill efficiency of .486. Kylee Schiphoff contributed 13 kills with a .270 kill efficiency. Frankie Mohni supplied 44 set assists.
The presence of Douma and Schiphoff was felt on the defensive side as well. Douma registered two solo blocks and one assist. Schiphoff made one solo block and assisted on four others. The 111 digs by the Hawks included 28 from Lindsey Van Es, 22 from Eliza Tewes and 20 from Mohni.
HMS served at almost 95 percent on the night. Tewes was 27-of-28 serving including the team’s two aces. Addy Sheeler and Van Es were each 16-of-16 from the service line.
HMS Stats
Kills-Errors-Attempts (Kill Efficiency): Team 49-24-151 (.166), Lindsey Van Es 0-0-1 (.000), Eva Stammer 3-1-8 (.250), Addy Sheeler 0-1-1 (-1.000), Moriah Otto 5-9-28 (-.143), Eliza Tewes 6-5-32 (.031), Abby Douma 20-3-35 (.486), Kylee Schiphoff 13-3-37 (.270), Frankie Mohni 2-2-9 (.000).
Assists: Mohni 44, Van Es 2, Stammer 1.
Digs: Team 111, Van Es 28, Tewes 22, Mohni 20, Otto 14, Sheeler 12, Stammer 6, Schiphoff 5, Payton Diehm, Douma 2.
Blocks: Douma 2 solo, 1 assist, Schiphoff 1 solo, 4 assists, Stammer, Mohni 1 assist.
Serving (Efficiency): Team 95-101 (.941) 2 aces, Van Es 16-16 (1.000), Sheeler 16-16 (1.000), Otto 13-14 (.929), Tewes 27-28 (.964) 2 aces, Schiphoff 15-16 (.938), Mohni 8-11 (.727).