LA's Alex Darling hit the floor to dig out this serve against Britton-Hecla.
CROSS-COUNTY THRILLER
It’s a cross-county rivalry that plays out at least once a year and Monday night the volleyball match between Britton-Hecla and Langford Area provided a little bit of everything in a thrilling five-set donnybrook.
Big runs, unbelievable saves, a marathon set, and memorable comebacks all boiled down a 25-18, 30-28, 22-25, 14-25, 15-13 victory for the Lady Lions on the Lady Braves home court. The win boosted LA to 5-6 on the year while the Lady Braves stand at 6-4.
This week Britton-Hecla travels to Redfield on Thursday and tangles with Waverly-South Shore in Waverly on Tuesday. Langford Area traveled to Eureka to play North Border last night Tuesday and will compete in a tournament in Ipswich on Saturday.
What a battle, so proud of these girls,” said LA coach Susan Larson. “They hung with it and fought back time and time again. They played together and supported each other and didn’t let the errors pull them down. We struggled a little staying in system, but when the passing was on we looked good. We didn’t give up on the defensive end either. We fought to keep the ball in play. It was a very evenly matched game and both teams played well. It’s a win the team is very proud of.”
“We've had some highs and some lows lately,” said B-H coach Jenna Peters, who saw her club go 3-4 for the week, also dropping a match to Deuel and splitting four matches at the Clark-Willow Lake Tournament on Saturday. “We definitely have things to work on for our next game.
“We need to consistently play our game against all teams,” Peters added. “We've lost some games we shouldn't have lost but we need to move forward and fix what needs to be fixed. We have some really talented girls so we need to figure out where the best fit is for everyone and need to learn from these losses and move forward.”
Monday’s cross-county tussle looked early-on like it would be Britton-Hecla’s night. Heather Storbakken served the first nine points and Kaegan Fredrickson pounded down four early kills of her match-high 18, and suddenly it was 9-0.
B-H still led 14-7 before Bryanna Peterson had back-to-back blocks and a kill, helping the Lady Lions cut the margin to 17-16, and it was game-on. The Lady Braves added a point to lead 18-16, but then Alex Darling served eight straight points, getting a pair of kills from Cali Vander Vorst and a kill and block from Bayleann Moen to give LA a 25-18 opening-set win.
The Lady Braves started fast again in set two, jumping out to a 7-2 lead behind two Tiyanna Schott kills and another from Abby Lee. B-H threatened to take charge several times but the Lady Lions would bend but not break.
An 18-14 B-H lead was cut to 18-17 before Peters crew boosted it up to 23-18 on back-to-back Adison Wade acaes and a Fredrickson kill. But back came LAS again, knotting the match at 23-all. Britton-Hecla had four set points but LA fought them off each time for the 30-28 win and a 2-0 match lead.
In set three the Lady Braves jumped out to an early 8-4 lead and boosted that to 18-12. But true to form, LA battled back once again scoring eight straight points, again with Alex Darling at the service line, to grab a 20-18 advantage. But this time the Lady Braves, with their back against the wall, answered. Fredrickson served five straight, including an ace, and a Lee block sealed the deal.
Another early B-H lead in set four had the Lady Braves up 14-6, but LA roared back to lead 19-18. This time, however, Britton-Hecla rallied behind six straight service points from Emma Kraft and a pair of Fredrickson kills to force the deciding fifth set.
The grand finale didn’t disappoint. The teams exchanged body blows. B-H led 5-1, LA led 11-8, and the set was tied at 13-all. But a net violation gave the Lady Lions their 14th point and Megan Gustafson put away a kill to give LA the victory.
There were a total of 80 kills in the match, 45 by Britton-Hecla behind Frdrickson’s 18 and 35 by Langford Area, led by Moen with 16. The teams were both proficient from the service line with B-H hitting 104-109 with 10 aces and LA connecting on 102-107 with eight aces.