Pats Fall in Thrilling 5-Set Season Opener
Everyone knows it’s going to be a great game when the Patriots meet up with the Howells-Dodge Jaguars for a Highway 91 battle, and this year’s volleyball match-up was no exception.
The Clarkson-Leigh Patriots’ season officially started on September 3. The Patriots traveled to Howells to take on the Jaguars for their first official game of the season.
The JV’s started off the night. They started out slow and dug themselves a hole. Even after trying their best, they lost the first set 11-25. The second set seemed to be the same result. The end of the second set was 9-25. The third set was when they finally showed everyone what they were capable of. They came out on top of the game and won the set 25-20. Even with the great effort, they couldn’t pull off the win going 1-2.
After Jv’s played, Varsity was up. They were ready to compete against Howells-Dodge, hoping to clinch a victory. Warm-ups went by quick and the game was finally underway.
The first set didn’t go as planned. Even though the Patriots worked hard to win the set, they had too many unforced errors to pull it off. The 1st set ended with a score of 21-25.
The second and third set went much better for the Patriots. Their passes went to target, which set up their hitters for big swings. The second set ended with a score of 25-22. The third set was crazy. Both teams played a great set pushing each other hard. The Jaguars and the Patriots battled back and forth until the Patriots won 30-28.
Even with all the excitement and energy the Patriots had after the third set, the fourth set didn’t show it. Their passing wasn’t going well and they made too many serving errors to win the set. They came up short in the fourth 22-25.
Going into the fifth set, both teams came out ready to play, but the Patriots couldn’t pull together any runs, eventually losing the set 8-15.
Sophomore setter Makenna Held said, “Even though we couldn't pull off a win, I think we have progressed a lot as a team since our first jamboree game. We battled a lot harder against Howells Dodge and are more than ready for our second and third games in the triangular this week. I think everyone can agree that we are excited to see what this season brings for our volleyball team.”
Head coach Rebecca Schnieder said, “Losing a 5-set match is never easy, especially to a rival just down the road! Unfortunately, we were inconsistent and had too many unforced errors on our end.
We feel serving could really be a strong suit for us, but we struggled a bit on the serve line and we weren’t as aggressive as we should have been. We missed quite a few that we normally don’t miss in practice. Also, passing wasn’t quite where we’d like to it to be. We stress that the serve/pass game is vital and we need to be able to control those two aspects of the game in order to be successful, and we just fell short.
On the flip side,” Schneider continued, “there was a lot of growth and a lot of positives in that loss! Taking set three 30-28 was a huge step in showing perseverance and having grit, but we just need to be able to carry that momentum over into the next set!
Overall, we are continuing to see the girls come together and have more of those big plays! We just need to work on putting it all together and be more consistent throughout the whole match.”
Game Stats:
S1 S2 S3 S4 S5
Clarkson/Leigh: 21 25 30 22 8
Howells-Dodge: 25 22 28 25 15
Individual Stats:
(kills-hit attempts, blocks, digs, assists, ace serves)
Taylor Larson––3-14, 1, 1, 1, 0; Makenna Held––1-7, 1,12, 35, 1; Kennedy Settje––9-27, 1, 14, 1, 1; Kayden Schumacher ––3-30, 0, 11, 0, 0; Bailey Lemburg––0-1, 0, 6, 0, 1; Reagan Settje––1-2, 1, 0, 0, 0; Cassidy Hoffman––15-49, 6, 11, 0, 0; Brittney Urbanek––0-0, 0, 11, 0, 1; Kim Stodola––9-34, 2, 1, 0, 0