Spencer volleyball team sweeps Northland Lutheran, places 7th in tournament
In their first game of the season last Thursday, the Spencer Rockets cruised to a win versus Northland Lutheran (NL) at home. The Wildcats did not prove too much of a challenge in the first set, as Spencer scored four unanswered points to start the game and also went on a 12-point run while NL was stuck at 6. Spencer won the set 25-7.
“We can be a very strong serving team, so we used that to our advantage. We also did a nice job on capitalizing on any free balls that were sent over the net,” coach Alicia Herman said of the first set.
The second set was much of the same. Spencer again went on a run when NL was at 6 points. This time the Rockets scored eight unanswered points. Spencer won the second set 25-13.
The third set was a bit of a different story. Spencer quickly got out to a lead like the previous two sets, going up 18-9, but struggled to close it. The Wildcats battled back and tied the game at 20 points.
Herman said that, to the Wildcats’ credit, they did a good job of tiring her team out.
“They were a very scrappy defense. They did a nice job of sending the ball over in different ways all game, which wears on a team over time,” she said.
After tying at 20, the teams tied again at 22. A few poor passes on NL’s part enabled Spencer to still pick up the win, 25-22, leading to a 3-0 victory overall.
Herman said she viewed the game as an assessment for her team, indicating what areas needed improvement, such as blocking.
“Girls are still getting used to moving and going up together. We are a team where our goal is to at least get a deflection on every hardball coming across the net, rather than a stuff block every time,” she said.
“Overall, it was a nice, strong start to the season. We are a very young team this year, but we have the talent to play with anyone we come against. We will use this game to help us understand where we are right now and where we need to go.”
Tournament On Saturday, the Rockets participated in an eight-team volleyball tournament at Marathon. Sets were played the best of three, with the third set played to 15. Spencer went 0-3 in the first round of competition, losing to Stratford with set scores of 11-25 and 10-25. Spencer also lost to Phillips (16-25, 21-25) and Rib Lake (21-25, 17-25).
In the consolation bracket, Spencer lost to Three Lakes (22-25, 25-21, 14-16) but defeated Phillips this time around (25-23, 20-25, 15-12). That gave the Rockets seventh place overall.
All in all, the Rockets were 1-4 on the day. Lydia Lau had the best serving percentage at 91.5%, with only four errors on 47 attempts. She had 10 ace serves. She also performed defensively with 55 digs. Chloe Timm had the next highest with 35. Olivia Schreiner had six blocks, the most of any player. Carmen Krause led the attack from the net, with 36 kills. Ema Schultz had 22.
