The Langford Area volleyball team lost in straight sets to Webster Area last week Tuesday and played Warner last night Tuesday to wrap up regular season play.
Region 1B tournament action begins on Monday with second round play on Tuesday and semifinal matches next week Thursday to determine the two SoDak 16 qualifiers. Each match will be hosted by the highest seed.
Prior to matches on Tuesday, Warner (27-4) was the top seed, followed by Hitchcock-Tulare (27-2), Northwestern (27-5), Aberdeen Christian (16-12), Wilmot (11-15), Langford Area (9-18), Tiospa Zina (7-23), Leola-Frederick Area (4-20), Waverly-South Shore (7-19), and Waubay-Summit (1-23).
In Monday play-in matches the #8 seed vs. #9, and #7 plays #10. On Tuesday the 8-9 winner will meet the number one seed and the 7-10 victor takes on the two seed. In other Tuesday matches #3 vs. #6 and #4 vs. #5. Winners will meet in the semifinals on Thursday.
If current seedings remain the same six seed Langford Area would play at three seed Northwestern on Tuesday.
The Wildcats posted a 25-5, 25-11, 25-3 win over the Lady Lions earlier this season.
LA coach Susan Larson is hoping her squad can step things up a notch as postseason play begins.
“We really need to focus on our passing and aggressiveness for postseason,” said Larson. “I’d like to see more of that scrappy, never-give-up attitude here at the end of the season. The last couple of weeks have not been our best ball, so I’d like to see us finish the season playing up to our potential.”
Webster Area 25-25-25
LA 20-15-13
“We had four players gone for the Webster game at FFA nationals, so we started a new line up with some people in new positions. I thought the girls handled it well with very little practice time to prepare,” noted Larson. “We didn’t attack the ball as well as we normally do with some uncommon hitting errors, but the girls that filled in or switched positions did a nice job.”
Alex Darling led the Lady Lions at the service line, hitting 13-13 with four aces, while Brooke Dwight was 19-22 at the net with five kills.
SERVING: LA, 47-47, 7 aces (Alex Darling 13-13, 4 aces; Eliana Darling 11-11; Clarissa Guy 6-6, 2 aces)
HITTING: LA, 77-105, 11 kills (Brooke Dwight 19-22, 5 kills; Emily Olson 14-16, 1 kill; E. Darling 11-15, 1 kill)
SETTING: LA, 112-119, 11 assists (Paytyn Marlow 53-55, 8 assists; Guy 44-48, 2 assists)
DIGS: LA, 53 (E. Darling 20, Olson 12, Marlow 10)
BLOCKS: LA, 7 (Guy 3, Mariah Tosse 2, E. Darling 2)
