The opportunities were there

A missed opportunity late in the opening set proved costly for Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn in a 3-0 home loss to George-Little Rock. The Mustangs swept the War Eagle Conference match on Sept. 26 by scores of 25-23, 25-17, 25-16.

H-M-S took an early lead in the first set, but the Mustangs regrouped and built an 18-12 advantage. Momentum swung back to Hawks, who led 23-21 before G-LR scored the final four points.

"I was very impressed with the attitude of how our girls came out in the first set. We did a nice job of getting the ball in position to get an attack out of our offense," said Hawk coach Cheryl Kroese. "I really felt if we could have gotten that first set to swing our direction, we could have taken the match."

H-M-S battled back from an early deficit in the second set to tie the score, but G-LR scored eight of the final nine points to seal the win. The Hawks had an early lead in the final set but the Mustangs' 10-0 run was too much to overcome.

"The late rally (in set 1) by G-LR kind of took the wind out of our sails," Kroese admitted. "If you look at the breakdown of stats, we had almost twice the kill attempts in the first set versus the second and third."

Kylee Schiphoff led H-M-S with nine kills, Abby Douma had five and Addison Sheeler added three. Frankie Mohni put up 14 set assists.

Defensively, Abigail Otto had 16 digs, Eliza Tewes had nine, Mohni had eight, Moriah Otto had six, and Lindsey Van Es and Sheeler each had four.

Serving leaders were Moriah Otto 17-of-17, Schiphoff and Tewes 8-of-8, Abigail Otto 7-of-7, and Mohni 8-of-10. The Hawks were 53-of-57 overall with four aces.

• Fall to Wolverines

The outcome of close sets again went against H-M-S during a 3-0 loss at South O'Brien on Sept. 28. The Wolverines won the WEC match by scores of 25-16, 25-23, 25-22.

"The girls worked hard. I was proud of their efforts," Kroese said. "We definitely had our opportunities in sets 2 and 3. We just couldn't get momentum to swing in our direction at the right times."

H-M-S finished with more attacks (107-85) but South O'Brien recorded more kills (37-29) and ace serves (9-3).

Douma put down 11 kills, Schiphoff had nine and Moriah Otto and Tewes each had four. The leader in set assists was Mohni with 21.

At the serving line, Moriah Otto was 12-of-12, Kinsey Schirmer was 12-of-13, Mohni was 11-of-12, Tewes was 8-of-8 and Schiphoff was 8-of-12 with two aces.

On defense, Schiphoff had a solo block and an assist, and Douma and Moriah Otto each had two assists. Abigail Otto led H-M-S with 16 digs, Tewes had 11, and Mohni and Schirmer each had 10. Van Es added six digs and Moriah Otto had five.

Despite falling to 4-12 overall and 1-5 in WEC play, Kroese is confident the Hawks will regroup at the Harris-Lake Park tourney on Oct. 7 and in home matches with Hinton (2A No. 2) on Oct. 9, MMCRU on Oct. 10 and Akron-Westfield on Oct. 12.

"It's tough to lose the close ones, but these girls will work hard to get back on track," she said.