Hornets grab two huge Cloverbelt wins

The Colby volleyball team won two key Cloverbelt-East matches over the last week to improve to 5-1 in the conference. The victories put them alone in second place, with only an undefeated Columbus squad ahead of them in the standings.

3-2

In one of their closest matches of the season, the Hornets came out on top in Loyal on Tuesday evening, defeating the Greyhounds 3-2.

The two teams battled back and forth all night in front of a crowd dressed in pink for a breast cancer awareness event hosted that evening by Loyal. After splitting the first four sets, it all came down to a final tiebreaker between the two Cloverbelt-East teams. Colby held a slight lead over much of the final set, but the Greyhounds refused to go away, a tenacity that very nearly paid off.

Up 14-12, the Hornets had multiple opportunities to put the match away, but Loyal clawed their way back to force the game past the 15-point mark. Colby was not about to let the game slip away however, and pulled out a break point when they needed it most, winning the final set 17-15.

3-1

The Hornets picked up a Cloverbelt conference win over Owen-Withee last Thursday. After losing the first set to the Blackhawks, Colby bounced back to win three in a row to take the contest.

Both teams looked evenly matched in the opening set, with an early 3-0 lead for the Hornets being the largest advantage either team held for most of the game. Colby seemed to have finally taken a decisive edge after a block from Dakota Hoeper and Lilly Brzezinski put their team up 22-18. However, Owen-Withee strung together five straight points to go up 23-22, a stretch that eventually allowed them to take the first set 25-23.

With momentum having shifted to the visitors, the Blackhawks opened up a five point lead early in the second set. Colby managed to battle back, scoring four straight points with Hannah Trush at the service line. The junior recorded three aces over the stretch, her other serve resulting in a free ball that Hornets were able to corral and send to Daelyn Rieck for the kill. The rally brought the Hornets back into the game and they were able to eventually distance themselves from the visitors, outscoring them 12-4 over the second half of the set to tie the match 1-1.

Stellar serving helped the Hornets take a big lead in the tiebreaking third set. After getting the first point of the game on a kill, Rieck delivered 11 straight serves for the Hornets. She rendered the Owen-Withee offense non-existent, racking up five aces, a free ball and three errors. The Blackhawks were only able to successfully control one of the serves, but Brynn Lieders and Savana Thomsen combined for a block to keep the Blackhawks scoreless. The visitors finally managed to regroup, but the damage had already been done. Trush came to the service line with the Hornets now up 16-6 and picked up two more aces to help push the score to 20-6 and once again unsettle the Blackhawks. Colby took the set 25-11 and entered the fourth game with momentum firmly on their side.

While Owen-Withee held a small advantage over the first 10 rallies, the Hornets dominated the middle portions of what would be the final set of the match. After being down 6-4, Colby used a 13-5 run to go up 17-11. A kill courtesy of Rieck put the Hornets up 24-16 and while the Blackhawks made a small run at the end of the match, the sophomore ended the visitors comeback attempt with another cross court strike to take the 25-20 win.

In all, the Hornets ended the game with 19 aces, with Trush and Rieck both recording seven, Thomsen contributing four and Tori Underwood adding one. Rieck led the team in kills with 12, Lydia Decker had eight and Kylie Orth produced seven over the course of the match. Underwood had another solid performance on the defensive end, coming up with 21 digs. Rieck and Josie Higley each had 19.

The Hornets will have their final conference match at home this Thursday, Oct. 5 against Spencer. The Rockets are 3-3 in the Cloverbelt-East conference and are coming off a loss to Columbus. Start time for the match is scheduled for 7:15 p.m.