Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn, in search of its first War Eagle Conference win of the season, needed a rally against West Sioux. HMS had just suffered a narrow loss in set three to fall behind 2-1. The Hawks would have to up their game to avoid another loss, and that they did – in a big way. HMS won set four 25-14 and kept right on going in the deciding set, crushing the Falcons 15-2 to seize the 3-2 victory September 8 at Hartley.
West Sioux had won the first set 26-24 before the Hawks evened the match by winning set two 25-22. The Falcons then pulled out the third set 25-23. The comeback victory gave HMS a 1-2 record in the War Eagle Conference and a 2-5 mark overall.
Hawk head coach Cheryl Kroese noted the closeness of the match through three sets. “The first three sets were back and forth, obviously,” said Kroese. “I felt like our girls were trying to do the right things, we just couldn’t pull away from West Sioux. We were trying to be aggressive with our hitting. At times we were just over-anxious and leaving too soon, causing us to get ahead of our hits and not be accurate. In set three we, many times, had the momentum, but then missed a critical serve to lose it.”
As the match proceeded, Hawk potential turned into Hawk performance. “Set four definitely showed what we are capable of,” stated the HMS coach. “So proud of how we came out explosively. The ladies put up an impressive 19 kills in set four alone! Don’t think I’ve ever seen a night where we have put up that many kills in one set! That momentum continued into set five. We played with fire and were able to put up 11 points before West Sioux was even able to get a side out! Frankie (Mohni) did an amazing job taking over with her serves, (she recorded 4 aces in that stretch) and our offense rolled off another seven kills in set five to seal the deal. So proud of these young ladies and how they have worked so hard this week. We are figuring out what we need to do each night to prepare for our games and these ladies have really grown in playing as a team. We will continue to focus on our communication and effort.
Mohni fired nine ace serves overall while serving 25-of-29. The director of the offense finished with 35 set assists. The 45 kills in the match included 13 from Kylee Schiphoff, 11 from Abby Douma and nine from Elise Haack. Abby Kunzman came up with 17 digs.
HMS Stats
Kills-Errors-Attempts (Kill Efficiency): Team 45-22-155 (.148), Elise Haack 9-3-32 (.188), Abby Kunzman 5-3-19 (.105), Emily Mutombo 0-0-3 (.000), Eliza Tewes 5-3-17 (.118), Abby Douma 11-6-28 (.179), Kylee Schiphoff 13-5-42 (.190), Frankie Mohni 2-0-11 (.182), Abigail Otto 0-2-3 (-.667).
Assists: Team 42, Mohni 35, Kunzman 4, Haack 2, Mutombo 1.
Digs: Team 68, Kunzman 17, Haack, Mohni 13, Mutombo 8, Otto 6, Douma 3, Morgan Grooters, Kinsey Schirmer, Schiphoff 1.
Serving (Efficiency): Team 103-113 (.912) 14 aces, Grooters 9-9 (1.000), Haack 16-16 (1.000), Kunzman 23-24 (.958) 2 aces, Mutombo 12-14 (.857) 1 ace, Schirmer 7-8 (.875) 1 ace, Douma 7-8 (.875) 1 ace, Schiphoff 3-3 (1.000), Mohni 25-29 (.862) 9 aces, Otto 1-2 (.500).