Scoring runs made all the difference

The team with the most scoring runs won a War Eagle Conference volleyball match Sept. 30 in Hartley. Unfortunately from the perspective of Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn, that team was Remsen St. Mary's, which emerged with the 3-2 victory.

Set scores were 25-20, 13-25, 15-25, 25-22, 12-15.

The Hawks played from behind for much of the match, starting with the opening set. After trading leads later in the set, H-M-S went ahead for good at 17-16. The score stayed close until H-M-S scored four of the final five points.

Scoring runs of five and nine points in the second set helped St. Mary's even the match. H-M-S clawed back to within one point in the third, but a 5-0 run put St. Mary's back in control. They closed out the set with another five-point run to go up 2-1.

Trailing 13-19 in the fourth set, H-M-S scored six unanswered points to pull even. St. Mary's led by two, but the Hawks scored the final five points to even the match. St. Mary's went up 4-0 in the fifth set. H-M-S rallied to within 8-9, but St. Mary's extended the lead back to four and went on to claim the match.

The teams were nearly equal in many statistical areas, but St. Mary's had a 12-3 edge in ace serves. Serving totals for H-M-S were: Eliza Tewes, 16-of-16; Kylee Schiphoff, 17-of-19 with an ace; Moriah Otto, 18-of-20, two aces; Lindsey Van Es, 10-of-11; Frankie Mohni, 10-of-13; Addy Sheeler, 7-of-7; and Eva Stammer, 4-of-5.

At the net, Abby Douma put down 20 kills, Schiphoff had 12 and Otto had seven. Mohni contributed 40 assists.

Van Es led the back row defense with 29 digs. Other dig totals were Mohni 19, Tewes 17, Otto 13, Payton Diehm 10, Schiphoff 7, Sheeler 6 and Stammer 5. Douma finished with four solo blocks and an assist.

H-M-S fell to 5-12 overall and 2-5 in conference play. The Hawks close out the regular season hosting MMCRU on Oct. 15 and traveling to Akron-Westfield on Oct. 17.