Repeat performance

Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn's first match in the Class 1A regional volleyball tournament had a familiar feeling to it. The Oct. 19 contest paired them with War Eagle Conference member Harris-Lake Park and it was played in Hartley, as was the regular season match.

More importantly, set results mirrored that of the first encounter and so did the final outcome – a 3-1 victory for the Hawks. Set scores were 26-24, 18-25, 25-19, 25-19.

H-M-S had a strong night at the net, recording 141 attacks and 40 kills. The offense was led by the combination of Olivia Grooters and Jasmine Lux, who recorded 12 and 11 kills, respectively.

"Olivia's been improving the past few weeks and has been a vocal leader," Hawk coach Cheryl Kroese said. "It's nice to have that counterpart in the lineup."

Darby Mastbergen added seven kills and Ava Reitsma had five. Taya Mason finished with 25 set assists and Kaley Pearson put up five.

Just as they did in the regular season matchup, H-M-S came from behind in the first set to earn a narrow victory. The second set was also repeat performance of the earlier meeting, with the Hawks going through "a lull" which opened the door for H-LP to tie the match.

But H-M-S came back in the final two sets to defeat the Wolves again.

"Sets 3 and 4 were close, but I never felt like we were in trouble," Kroese noted.

Good serving (91.4 percent) was a plus for H-M-S. Mason was 21-of-22 with two aces and Grace Dalen was 21-of-24 with three. Abby Kunzman, Pearson and Jessica Riedemann were all 11-of-12 while Mastbergen was 10-of-11.

Dalen led a busy backrow defense with 16 digs, Riedemann had 14, Mastbergen had 12, Elise Haack and Mason each had eight and Pearson finished with seven.