A Royal theft

A letdown in the third set of Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn's home volleyball match with MMCRU may have been the turning point in a 3-1 loss. The Royals won the War Eagle Conference match on Oct. 10 by scores of 22-25, 25-18, 27-25, 25-21.

Things started well for the Hawks, who used a late rally to win the first set. After playing evenly during the second set, the Royals pulled away to tie the match.

The Hawks had an opportunity to regain the momentum in the third set. They went ahead midway into the set and were within one point of sealing the win. But MMCRU overcame the 24-21 deficit to come out on top.

"I thought we had that set and we let it slip just a bit, allowing MMCRU to come in and snatch that one from us," Hawk coach Cheryl Kroese acknowledged. "I felt this was kind of a turning point, giving MMCRU momentum into the fourth set."

The teams traded leads in the final set, but a late run gave the win to MMCRU.

"The girls fought hard. We had some good things throughout each set," Kroese said. "We weren't as sharp as we probably needed to be in our kill efficiency and our serve percentage."

The Hawks finished with 33 kills and 28 attack errors. Kylee Schiphoff had 10 kills, Abby Douma, Moriah Otto and Eliza Tewes each had six, and Eva Stammer added three. Frankie Mohni contributed 25 set assists.

In serving, Kinsey Schirmer was 15-of-15, Lindsey Van Es was 13-of-13, Schiphoff was 16-of-19, Tewes was 13-of-16, Abigail Otto was 11-of-14 and Mohni was 9-of-11.

Leaders in digs were Abigail Otto 16, Tewes 14 and Mohni 10. Van Es finished with nine digs, Schirmer had six and Schiphoff had five.

• vs. Hinton

H-M-S was limited 22 points in a three-set loss to Hinton (2A No. 2) on Oct. 9. The visiting Blackhawks won by scores of 25-8, 25-10, 25-4.

Scoring in each set followed a similar pattern. Hinton jumped out to early leads and kept adding to them. H-M-S's strongest rally came late in the second set.

The Hawks were limited to 23 serve attempts. Schirmer and Tewes were 5-of-5, Abigail Otto was 3-of-3, Moriah Otto was 3-of-4, and Mohni and Schiphoff was 2-of-3. Tewes had two ace serves.

Abigail Otto and Schirmer each had five digs, while Moriah Otto and Tewes had two. Leader in kills were Schiphoff with five, and Douma and Tewes with three.

• vs. Akron-Westfield

H-M-S closed out the regular season on Oct. 12 by hosting Akron-Westfield. The Westerners won by scores of 25-13, 25-20, 25-17.

An 8-0 run to open the first set gave momentum to the Westerners, which they continued to maintain. The Hawks led by five in the second set before falling behind at 16-15. The score was tied three times before Akron-Westfield's 5-0 run finished the set.

H-M-S again led to begin the final set but Akron-Westfield rallied to go in front. The Hawks narrowed the margin to 19-17 but went scoreless the rest of the way.

Both teams served well but the Westerners had a big advantage in aces (11-1). Totals for H-M-S were Schirmer 10-of-10, Tewes 10-of-11, Schiphoff 8-of-10, Mohni 7-of-7, and Abigail Otto and Van Es 6-of-6.

Leaders in kills were Schiphoff with nine, Douma with seven, Addison Sheeler with four and Tewes with three. Mohni finished with 21 set assists.

Leading the back row were Abigail Otto with 15 digs, Tewes with 14 and Van Es with 13. Mohni added seven digs, Schirmer had six and Schiphoff had four.

H-M-S won two of 10 matches in War Eagle Conference play.