Raider Volleyball goes 3-2 in busy week

Last week was another one of those busy weeks for the Lady Raider Volleyball Team. They played three games before two more over the weekend in the conference tournament. They defeated C-2 Blue Hill in five sets to start the week and added wins against High Plains and Franklin but dropping games to D-1 Deshler and BDS.

An interesting week for Raiders players, coaches and fans. Following are game summaries:

L-N – BLUE HILL: 19-25, 27-25, 21-25, 25-20, 15-13: No matter the sport or time any event with Blue Hill has become "interesting" as one fan noted. This volleyball game was no exception.

Of all the games last week this one may have been the most exciting. "Interesting" facts from the stat sheet. Both teams had 29 errors in hitting, however, BH had 55 kills while L-N had 49. BH also had 12 ace serves compared to 7 for L-N. However, BH had 14 service errors compared to 8 for L-N.

Defense was critical for L-N and they had 92 good digs while BH had 78.

Set 1: A number of 'short' volleys were won by BH in spite of several of Emma's game high 4 ace serves. The score was tied at 19-19 before BH ran the final six points. This stretch saw one of the longest volleys this reporter has ever seen.

Set 2: This overtime set was one to remember. The score was tied nine times and the score difference never exceeded three points. The score was tied at 24-24 before Emma slammed down a kill and then L-N benefited from a couple of BH hitting errors.

Set 3: BH scored first again and led the whole Set using three ace serves towards that effort. L-N suffered too many hitting errors in this Set to gain any advantage.

Set 4: For the first time of the evening, L-N scored first and then led the whole game. Katelyn served up an ace to help get the Set started and then BH committed a number of hitting errors to aid L-N. Kara Menke and Emma Epley each had kills late in the game to push L-N to the victory.

Set 5: L-N scored first again and never trailed in this Set. Blocking had a very important part in this set and the Raider's two leading blocker in this game, Sydney Biltoft and Kara Menke contributed a number of points due to their blocks. The most exciting play of this set was a Katelyn push to the very back of the BH court that fell for a point and then Kara's final kill of the Set and game for the 15th point.

(Kills, Ace, Digs) Sydney Biltoft 4, 0, 3; Aleah Heikkinen 8, 1, 15; Emma Epley 18, 4, 13; Elsa Jorgensen 2, 0, 13; Katelyn Mazour 3, 1, 9; Emily Troudt 1, 0, 0; Hanna Skinner 0, 0, 12; Kylie Beard 3, 1, 4; Kara Menke 10, 0, 7.

Assists: Katelyn 25, Emma 11.

Blocks: (Solo-Assist) Sydney 2-5, Kara 1-3; Aleah 1-0, Kylie 0-2.

Serve Receive: Elsa 36-39, Aleah 16-18, Hanna 16-18.

L-N – HIGH PLAINS: 25-22, 23-25, 25-20: The first game for L-N in the triangular game Thursday was against a good HP's team (16-11). L-N had a slight edge in many of the statistics with the most obvious coming in kills where Kara had a team high with 12 and Emma 11. Blocking was also an important part of the win with Sydney, Aleah, Emma and Kara all having two assists each.

The win gave L-N its fifth two game winning streak of the season.

(Kills, Ace, Digs) Sydney Biltoft 3, 0, 2; Aleah Heikkinen 6, 2, 13; Emma Epley 11, 1, 9; Elsa Jorgensen 0, 0, 12; Katelyn Mazour 3, 0, 12; Emily Troudt 1, 0, 0; Hanna Skinner 0, 0, 14; Kylie Beard 0, 0, 0; Kara Menke 12, 0, 2.

Assists: Katelyn 15, Emma 11.

Blocks: (All Assists) Sydney 2, Aleah 2, Emma 2, Kara 2.

Serve Receive: Elsa 27-29, Aleah 11-11, Hanna 6-7, Emma 6-8.

L-N – BDS: 19-25, 17-25: In the second game of the triangular the Lady Raiders met up with one of the top teams in Class D-1. Bruning-Davenport-Shickley (BDS) carries a 22-4 record at this point of the season and they controlled the game most of the way. They limited Raider kill attempts and allowed only three Raider Ace Serves.

(Kills, Ace, Digs) Sydney Biltoft 1, 0, 1; Aleah Heikkinen 2, 2, 3; Emma Epley 5, 0, 4; Elsa Jorgensen 0, 0, 5; Katelyn Mazour 1, 1, 1; Emily Troudt 0, 0, 0; Hanna Skinner 0, 0, 1; Kylie Beard 1, 0, 1; Kara Menke 3, 0, 0.

Assists: Katelyn 5, Emma 4.

Blocks: None.

Serve Receive: Elsa 20-21, Hanna 8-10, Aleah 6-6.

L-N – DESHLER: 15-25, 21-25: The first game of the TVC tournament was a season rematch with Class D-1 Deshler. The result was not as good as the first meeting when L-N won. In this Set L-N committed 18 hitting errors compared to only 5 for Deshler.

Deshler committed few errors in the major statistical categories for the win.

(Kills, Ace, Digs) Sydney Biltoft 3, 0, 0; Aleah Heikkinen 4, 0, 12; Emma Epley 7, 0, 8; Elsa Jorgensen 0, 1, 9; Katelyn Mazour 3, 1, 9; Emily Troudt 1, 0, 1; Hanna Skinner 0, 0, 3; Kylie Beard 1, 0, 1; Kara Menke 2, 0, 1.

Assists: Katelyn 10, Emma 8.

Blocks: (All Assists) Sydney 2, Emma 1, Kara 1.

Serve Receive: Elsa 19-20, Aleah 11-14Hanna 5-5.

L-N – FRANKLIN: 25-10, 25-22: The TVC tournament allows most all teams to play two games at a minimum and the Lady Raider's consolation game was against Franklin which they won in a fairly easy manner.

The number of kills exceeded the season average with a cooperated efforts from three players. Aleah, Emma and Kara all recorded six kills each. Service Aces came from Aleah 2, Emma 2, and Katelyn 1.

The victory evened the Raider's season record to 14-14. L-N and Franklin will meet again Thursday night in Nelson for the final regular season game of the year.

Shelton, 26-2, won the TVC tournament defeating Kenesaw for the Conference title.

(Kills, Ace, Digs) Sydney Biltoft 3, 0, 1; Aleah Heikkinen 6, 2, 4; Emma Epley 6, 2, 3; Elsa Jorgensen 0, 0, 6; Katelyn Mazour 4, 1, 1; Emily Troudt 1, 0, 1; Hanna Skinner 0, 0, 2; Kylie Beard 2, 0, 1; Kara Menke 6, 0, 4.

Assists: Katelyn 17, Emma 9.

Blocks: (Assists) Sydney 1, Emma 1.

Serve Receive: Elsa 14-15, Hanna 7-8.

The NSAA has not released information on the Sub-District tournament as of this writing.