Lady Indians Defeat Good Idalia Team
On Thursday, August 31, the Lady Indians traveled to Idalia, Colorado, to play the Lady Wolves in high school volleyball. The competition was brisk throughout the evening, but the Lady Indians returned with two victories over a good opponent. St. Francis won the opener, a junior varsity contest played best-of-three, in two sets, 25-19, 25-8. The varsity team blanked the Lady Wolves 27-25, 25-18, 25-16 in a best-of five match.
In junior varsity play, the action was a bit sluggish early, but the Lady Indians soon found a rhythm and began to pull away. After trailing 2-3, the Lady Indians earned a 4-point run to take a 6-3 lead; a lead they would never relinquish. During the run Hannah Zimbal made a nice play earning a point on a deep tip. After allowing Idalia to close within one, the Lady Indians reeled off four more to extend the lead to 10-6. During the run, Zimbal recorded a stuff on an Idalia over-pass. The Lady Indians would earn three more runs of three or more points in the set while limiting Idalia to only two. When Idalia closed within two (13-11), Emma Johnson scored on a backrow attack and Zimbal served up consecutive aces. With the addition of another Zimbal kill and two aces by Mireya Palasio-Rocha, the Lady Indians advanced their lead to 22-13. Idalia made one last run of four points before the Lady Indians closed the game with a dump set by Johnson, a kill by Johnson, and a final tip-kill by Zimbal. St. Francis won game one 25-19.
St. Francis completely controlled the second set. The Lady Indians only allowed the Lady Wolves to score consecutive points once during the game. St. Francis opened with a 5-point run that included an ace by Mireya Palasio-Rocha. The second St. Francis run included a kill by Taighe Weeter (assist Emma Johnson) and two ace serves by Karly Bandel. The run left the Lady Wolves trailing 11-2. Johnson started the next SF run with a tip kill and concluded the run with an ace. Leading 16-5, the Lady Indians pieced together another 5-point run which included two ace serves by Hannah Zimbal. The Lady Indians dominated game two, winning 25-8.
The varsity match was highly competitive with two good evenly-matched teams battling throughout the evening. St. Francis led 2-0, but Idalia tied the contest on stuff block moments later and took the advantage. Jessica Confer's kill retied the game at 3-all. The set would have 9 ties and 4 lead changes before the Lady Indians prevailed. Idalia earned a three-point advantage 5-8, but the Lady Indians tied the game at 9-all following kills by Taighe Weeter, Hanna Bracelin, and Lauren Johnson. Then It was the Lady Wolves turn. Idalia scored the next five points to take a 9-14 lead before missing a serve. A tip-kill by Lindsey Johnson was followed by a tip by Bracelin closing the margin to 12-14. The teams battled back-and-forth eventually to become tied at 21-all when Idalia used their first time out to discuss strategy. Madi Tice's free-ball kill moved the score to 22-23, and Emileigh Dinkel's kill tied the game at 23-all. Dinkel's next kill tied the match at 24-all extending the contest. The Lady Indians eventually prevailed in a hard-fought contest 27-25. Bracelin's deep-tip scored the final point.
As the evening progressed, the Lady Indians play gradually improved. The second set found the Lady Indians leading 6-1 after capitalizing on consecutive kills by Jessica Confer. It wasn't long before the Lady Wolves roared back to take a 10-11 lead on an over-pass kill triggering a St. Francis time-out. Back-to-back kills by the Lady Wolves after the time-out placed the Lady Indians at a 10-13 deficit. St. Francis then scored on a kill by Lauren Johnson and an Idalia passing error before missing a serve (12-14). After tying the game at 14-all, the Lady Indians again missed a service attempt (14-15) . Idalia returned the favor a bit later allowing the Lady Indians to take the lead on a Confer kill (17-16). The Lady Indians closed the set with sharp play getting kills from Bracelin and Lauren Johnson and took a 25-18 win.
The third game began with an ace by Lauren Johnson and an eventual 3-0 lead for St. Francis. Idalia tied the game at 3-all with an ace of their own. Jessica Confer's kill gave the lead back to St. Francis. Consecutive volleys ending with a Confer kill, a Confer ace, and a kill by Hanna Bracelin placed the Lady Indians at an 8-5 advantage. Idalia mounted a run capitalizing on two kills and a couple St. Francis passing errors to regain the lead (10-9) before missing another serve. St. Francis edged ahead only to have the game become retied at 12-all on an aggressive kill by Idalia's Breann Shaffer. A hitting error by the Lady Indians gave Idalia the lead again. The Lady Indians re-took the lead (14-13) on a nice stuff block by Lindsey Johnson and Confer. St. Francis was ready to close the game with some excellent play. The Lady Indians scored seven consecutive points capitalizing on three kills by Bracelin and a block by Bracelin. The spurt put St. Francis in front 22-15. The Lady Wolves added one more point before the Lady Indians closed the match with another 3-point run. St. Francis had swept the Lady Wolves winning set three 25-16.
St. Francis will play at Weskan on Tuesday, September 5. The start time has been changed to 4:00 C.T. to allow for the addition of a junior varsity match between Weskan and St. Francis. Three varsity matches will follow. The match order is: Weskan vs St. Francis, Cheylin vs St. Francis, and Weskan vs Cheylin.
