Falling on hard times

After staying close to the .500 mark during the first half of the volleyball season, Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn has found the going tough in terms of getting back into the win column.

The Hawks dropped their fifth-straight match to South O'Brien (11-25, 22-25, 19-25) in War Eagle Conference action on Oct. 1 in Hartley.

The Wolverines' early lead in the first set was never seriously threatened. H-M-S started strong in the second set to build an 11-7 lead, lost the advantage and briefly regained it. They fell behind again and could not recover.

The Hawks trailed by as many as four points in the final set. Just as they did in the previous set, H-M-S rallied to within one before the Wolverines finished out the win.

South O'Brien was credited with twice as many kills as H-M-S (27-13) and recorded 13 ace serves compared to one for the Hawks.

For H-M-S, Jasmine Lux had five kills, Ava Reitsma had three, and Taya Mason and Olivia Grooters each had two. Setting them up were Mason with seven assists and Kaley Pearson with four.

Individual serving performances were Pearson, 11-of-12; Jessica Riedemann, 9-of-10; Abby Kunzman, 8-of-9; Darby Mastbergen, 7-of-8; Mason, 6-of-7; and Elise Haack, 5-of-7.

The Hawks recorded several blocks, led by Lux with four assists, Reitsma with a solo block and three assists, and Grooters and Mason with two assists each.

Riedemann led the backrow defense with 10 digs; Haack, Mason and Mastbergen each had eight; and Pearson added seven.

H-M-S fell to 4-11 overall and 0-5 in the conference. The Hawks have a busy end to their regular season, starting with a home match against Remsen St. Mary's on Oct. 8. They will also play a rescheduled varsity-only match (6 p.m.) at Hinton on Oct. 12, and at MMCRU on Oct. 13 and Akron-Westfield on Oct. 15.