Hornets fall in tight road match against Columbus
By Nathaniel Underwood
The Hornets went 2-2 over the past week, winning two of their three matches during the quad they hosted on Saturday after falling to Columbus Catholic in a tightly contested Cloverbelt-East match between two of the conference’s best squads.
Colby Quad
Colby hosted Coulee/Providence, Stanley-Boyd and Arcadia over the past weekend for a four-team round robin competition. The Hornets opened their day with two wins but Arcadia stopped them from completing the full sweep in the final match.
In their first match against Coulee/Providence, the Hornets appeared unstoppable. With Hannah Trush serving, Colby scored the first 15 points of the match. Daelyn Rieck’s kill capped off the impressive run for the Hornets, who would go on to win the first set 25-4.
The second set was nearly as dominant as the first. While the visiting co-op squad managed to hang in the match over the first few rallies, it didn’t take long for Colby to get on a roll. A kill up the middle from Lilly Brzezinski gave the Hornets a 4-2 lead and with Tori Underwood serving, the Hornets would go on to score six more points to take a 10-2 lead. Coulee/Providence managed to maintain the deficit through the midgame, but another late run from the Hornets would put the match out of reach. Following a kill from Rieck, the Hornets went on an 8-0 run to go up 22-7, capped off by an ace from Megan Kosik. Colby eventually won the set 25-10.
The Hornets had an impressive 21 aces in the victory, led by Trush with seven. Kosik had five herself and Underwood, Rieck and Candence Meyer had three each. Rieck and Brzezinski led the team with five kills each and Dakota Hoeper added four more to the total.
Stanely-Boyd put up more resistance in the Hornets’ second match of the day. An early 6-1 run for Colby allowed them to open up a 8-3 advantage. They would slowly grow that lead out to an eventual eight point lead, but the Orioles began to creep back into the match in the midgame. A block from Savana Thomsen and Brzezinski followed by a pinpoint set across the net that found the back corner of Stanley-Boyd’s court by Thomsen cut that rally short and helped the Hornets reestablish their eight point lead. Thomsen later put an exclamation point on the end of the set, smashing down a free ball at the net to give the Hornets a 25-15 win.
The Orioles would not be deterred by the double-digit loss and the two teams went back and forth over the beginning portions of the second set. Stanley-Boyd was the first to take a multiple score lead at 11-9 and used that momentum to score four more unanswered points, going up 15-9. A kill from Brzezinski eventually brought the Hornets back within three and a tip from the middle hitter two rallies later shaved the Orioles advantage down to 21-20. A strong kill from Rieck tied the game but the Hornets could not regain the lead and fell 25-23.
Colby took momentum early in the tiebreaker, going up 72. However, the Orioles went on a run of their own, outscoring the Hornets 7-1 over the next eight rallies to take a 9-8 lead. Rieck finally stemmed the bleeding with a kill to tie the game and after a hitting error by the visitors and an ace courtesy of Harrison Schmitt, the Hornets took an 11-9 lead. Kills from Rieck and Brzezinski brought Colby within a point of victory and a failed setter dump into the net sealed the Orioles’ fate, giving the home team a 15-11 win.
Rieck had 12 kills in the win and Schmitt and Brzezinski picked up five each. The Hornets also had four blocks, with Brzezinski and Thomsen both contributing to three assisted blocks. Thomsen and Trush led the defensive efforts, recording 17 and 15 digs respectively.
A big run for Arcadia in the midgame set the tone in the Hornets final match of the day. With the score knotted at 7-7, the Raiders went on to score 10 straight points, finally ending their streak on a hitting error. The Hornets went on a small run of their own near the end of the match, outscoring their opponents 8-3, but the hole they had dug themselves was too large and they eventually fell 25-20. The Raiders continued to lay down the pressure in the second set, limiting Colby’s offensive options. With momentum on their side, Arcadia went on to secure the sweep, downing the Hornets 25-18.
Outside of Rieck, Colby struggled to find any sort of offense. The junior outside hitter had 10 of the Hornets’ 15 kills in the match, registering an impressive .500 hitting percentage, but the team had 15 hitting errors overall.
See HORNETS VOLLEYBALL/ Page 20
POWERFUL HIT - Lilly Brzezinski gets the kill with a tough spike up the middle for the Hornets.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
SNEAKING IT PAST THE DEFENSE - Savana Thomsen tips the ball over the net against Stanley-Boyd.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD Hornets volleyball
Continued from page 12
Columbus Catholic, 3-1
The road to the Cloverbelt-East title typically goes through the Columbus Catholic Dons, who have held the conference in a tight grip for the last decade. Any upstart team looking to dethrone the reigning champs would likely have to beat them, and the Hornets would have to do so on the road. They had their chance last Thursday and while Colby was able to take the Dons to the brink over the first few sets, they ran out of steam late and eventually fell 3-1.
Rieck started the Hornets off with a kill to give them an early lead in what would turn into a closely contested first game. A hitting error by Columbus handed the Hornets an 8-4 advantage, the largest lead by either team over the course of the set. Following that play, the Dons outscored Colby 8-2 to overtake the Hornets 12-10. The two squads battled back and forth, but a serving error by Columbus gave the visitors an opportunity to retake the lead at 17-17. Rieck delivered on the next play, hammering a kill through the Dons block to break the tie.
A ball-handling error gave Colby a chance to win the game at 24-23, but the Hornets were unable to score. They had two more set points to try and put away Columbus, but the Dons managed to survive both attempts before eventually winning three points in a row to take down Colby 28-26.
The second set was just as back and forth as the first, though this time it was the Dons who were the ones to take the first significant lead. A 12-11 lead grew to a 20-13 advantage for the home team as they outscored the Hornets 8-2 over the midgame. A kill from Schmitt finally stopped Columbus’s momentum, but Colby had some work to do to bring themselves back into the match.
With set point at 24-19, the Hornets needed to win five straight points to keep their hopes alive. Thomsen started things off with a set across the net that the Dons could not reach in their back corner before following it up with an ace. An error by Columbus prompted a timeout from the home team, but the Hornets kept it rolling. Solid defense from Colby eventually resulted in another hitting error by the Dons and then Schmitt and Trush combined for a clutch block to knot things up at 24-24.
The two teams battled back and forth, but this time it was the Hornets that would be the first to take a two point advantage. An ace from Schmitt gave Colby a 29-28 advantage and then the Hornets came up with another key block, this time a solo block by Brzezinski in the middle, that sealed the deal at 30-28.
The win seemed to have flipped momentum completely to the visitors’ side as Colby opened up a 12-2 lead in the third set. The Dons regrouped, however, and began to chip away at the large Colby lead. They went on to outscore the Hornets 15-5 over the midgame, tying things up at 17-17. The home team took the lead a few rallies later, going up 19-18 before opening up a three point lead. While Brzezinski was able to cut that lead back down to one at 23-22, the Dons went on to score the next two points and deal Colby a 25-22 defeat.
Colby never fully recovered from Columbus’s comeback effort, as the Dons used a 5-0 start to the fourth set to maintain control over the match. A kill from Schmitt followed by a hitting error from Columbus brought Colby back within two at 17-15, but that would be all the closer the Hornets would get as Columbus went on to win the set 25-19.
Three Hornets ended the game with double digit kills as Rieck recorded 15 and Thomsen and Schmitt came up with 10 each. Colby had nine total blocks on the day, Brzezinski leading the way with three solo and two assisted blocks. Brynn Polivika was part of three blocks and Schmitt and Thomsen both were in on two each. Thomsen led the team with 18 digs and Rieck and Underwood both ended the match with 16.
SMASHING SUCCESS - Hannah Trush zips the ball past the Orioles’ block during the Hornets 2-1 victory over Stanley-Boyd.
STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
