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SECTION 3A VOLLEYBALL: Lakers get past Lac qui Parle Valley in three sets

Photo by Lacey Barke Members of the Lakeview volleyball team celebrate after scoring a point during their Section 3A Tournament match against Lac qui Parle Valley on Monday. The Lakers won 3-0 to advance to the next round of the tournament.

COTTONWOOD- In the first round of the Section 3A Tournament, Lakeview saw success with a three-set sweep over Lac qui Parle Valley on Monday. The Lakers won their sets 25-16, 25-11 and 25-16.

Lakers head volleyball coach Hailey Osland was proud of the energy filled game that her team played. ” It was a really fun game,” she said. ” My girls just came out and played well, and I’m so happy that we played well, because we’ve been needing it.” Osland noted that the high energy on the court could stem from the pepfest that the school held earlier before the game. “We had a pepfest at 3:00 at school and our principal just riled us all up. We thought, we’re just going to really blow the roof off of this place and come out with lots of energy. We did exactly that.”

Lakeview came out swinging with a kill from the middle to earn the first point of the night. They swung again, but unfortunately didn’t see as much success as the hit fell on the wrong side of the line. The Lakers recovered quickly with a nice block that won the ball back and moved the score 5-3. LPQV struggled with their hits, but when they did get the ball over the net the Lakeview players were quick to meet the ball on defense.

Sidney Geistfeld and Alexis Lienemann helped the Lakers gain a 17-10 lead thanks to some aces delivered from the serving line. Stephanie Pickthorn and Baylee Larsen set up a couple solid blocks which advanced Lakeview’s lead further. The Eagles received some points when Lakeview slipped and delivered some hits into the net, but their effort wasn’t enough as the Lakers still managed to earn the win.

Sierra Plotz put down a kill to warm up the second set scoring for the Lakers. Haley Unke continued Lakeview’s excellent effort on the serving line by retrieving an ace. Lakeview’s defense let the Eagles temporarily slip ahead 6-7, but the Lakers weren’t distracted by minor setbacks and came back with even more intensity. Sophomore middle hitter LeeAnn Stensrud couldn’t be caught off guard in the front row, and had a few battles at the net where she earned a point off of a tip. Shortly after, Stensrud had a nice kill followed by an outside block which further extended the Lakers lead.

Geistfeld met the serving line again and pushed the lead further ahead to 16-8 with three consecutive aces followed by yet another point. The Lakers defense were quick on their toes and effectively shut down the LPQV hitters, which in turn aided in their 25-11 set win.

Coming into this game, Osland and her girls knew that they had to be prepared. ” We had 13 days off since our regular season,” she mentioned. “We worked a lot on serve receive, and I thought that our serve receive turned out really well. Our setter didn’t need to run around for a ball on offense. We had a struggle with serving right off of our regular season game, and I just told them, ‘Here’s the deal. Something has to change, and this is how it’s going to be.’ And the girls did serve aggressive- I was happy to see that.”

The final set of the night saw the Lakers missing some hits and the Eagles more effectively placing the ball around the block for points. LPQV stepped up their game and made the last set a tougher match for the Lakers in the beginning, and both teams kept the ball alive until an Eagles hitter got caught up in the net in a kill attempt. Stensrud delivered another hard kill to tie the score 6-6. Pickthorn earned two aces off of the serving line; this paired with a streak of good hits helped the Lakers pull ahead.

This time the aces were flowing from Leah Brusven who moved Lakeview’s lead from 16-11 to 18-11. Brusven was able to spot serve well and earned her two aces from both short and deep serves. The Eagles set up a solid block on a Lakers outside hit, but this small success didn’t deter the lakers who won off of a tip from middle hitter Savannah Rausch.

Geistfeld led her team’s excellent serving effort with 15 perfect serves, of which six were aces. Also achieving perfect serves on the line were Larsen with seven, Destiny Ban with three and an ace, and Kaitlin Fisher who chipped in one serve. Other players who helped out on the serving line were Lexi Lienemann with five serves including an ace, Unke with 12 serves including three aces, Brusven with 11 serves including two aces, and finally Pickthorn who achieved 11 serves with three of them being aces.

Unke led the set assists with 25, while Fischer contributed two. The leader in digs was Plotz who obtained six, followed by Lienemann with five, and Brusven with four as well as Stensrud who also had four. Pickthorn had three block assists, Stensrud had two solo blocks, and Larsen had one solo block as well three block assists. Leading the Lakers in kills was Pickthorn with 16. Pickthorn’s effort was closely followed by Stensrud who earned 15 kills, while Plotz had nine.

Heading into their next playoff game, Osland and her team are striving to keep up their intensity and hope to earn a win off of their challenging next match up. “We play Canby at 7:00 p.m. in Canby. They are a really well-oiled machine who put up a good fight,” she said. “We didn’t play well against them last time, so it’s hard to know how we will do, but the girls are ready to come out with a victory, and I have the same hope. Yes, Canby is a well-oiled machine, but I think we are hitting our peak at the right time.”

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