Tigers VB opens season with a win

Ipswich opened its 2018 high school volleyball campaign last Thursday with a homecourt 3-1 win over Aberdeen Christian.

Ipswich won the back-and-forth opening set 25-22 and had an even easier 25-13 win of the second set. But during the break between the second and third sets, the visitors must have decided that they weren't quite ready to leave, because they grabbed the momentum with a 25-19 win of the third set. Ipswich then also had to battle back from an early deficit in the fourth set. But that's exactly what the Lady Tigers did and they generated their own momentum for a 25-19 win, capped by Hailey Bierman's match point, a tip kill.

"Aberdeen Christian has improved, but we just made too many unforced errors because we lacked confidence in ourselves," said IHS coach Trent Osborne. "When you give up 79 total points and 47 are unforced errors, it is tough to look in mid-season form. We will improve and grow up athletically, but I hope we do it quickly."

Ipswich owned a 89-66 hitting advantage, including a 33-14 kills lead. Abby Grabowska paced Ipswich with a 24-32, 17-kill net effort. Avery Sylte was next at 6-9,4. At the service line, Ipswich was led by Halle Heinz, 10-13 with two aces and Bailey Pitz, 22-23,1. Ipswich got 142 total sets, including 31 assists, led by Pitz, 72-74, 12 assists and Heinz, 49-52,18.

Of Ipswich's 95 digs, Chesney Olivier came up with 23 and Abby Grabowska with 19. Ipswich also had two block assists, one each by Paige Mehlberg and Bierman.

Ipswich then attended a tourney in Milbank on Saturday and finished 2-2 on the day, according to Osborne. The Lady Tigers lost to their counterparts from Groton 25-22, 25-18. They also lost 2-0 to Beresford, 25-14, 25-15. But things got much better after that with a 2-0 capture of the Bronze Pool. Ipswich topped Deuel 25-18, 25-23 and also swept Sioux Valley 25-19, 25-13.

"We went 0-2 in pre-pool play and then won the Bronze Pool going 2-0. We played pretty well in three of the four matches," Osborne explained. "Versus Groton we played well and even fought back from a 12-0 deficit in game two to challenge them at the end. But in the Beresford match we just couldn't get in system. They had us running around chasing balls the whole match. We just plain got out-played. Then in the Bronze Pool we got things going and passed the ball very well, so setters were finding a number of different hitters and we were terminating rallies quickly. We ended the day on a very positive note and can hopefully feed off of that for the matches scheduled for this week."

In the win over Deuel, Abby Grabowska pounded down eight of Ipswich's 17 kills and accumulated a team-leading 17 of Ipswich's 50 total digs. Lindsey Grabowska added eight digs, as well and also three of Ipswich's seven service aces. Heinz led in setting assists with nine and Pitz added five. Altogether Ipswich dished out 16 assists. The Lady Tigers also utilized four blocks.

Against Sioux Valley, the victorious Lady Tigers received 26 total kills, led by Abby Grabowska with 10. Lindsey Grabowska was next with five. Ipswich had five service aces, led by three from Abby Grabowska. Ipswich utilized 26 set assists, led by Heinz with 15 and Pitz with 10. Of Ipswich's 46 digs, Olivier and Abby Grabowska had 14 each.

A highlight of the Groton game was 14 kills by Abby Grabowska, as Ipswich finished with 21. Ipswich added seven blocks paced by Bierman's three. Heinz led with 12 set assists and Pitz was next with nine. Sylte provided the lone IHS service ace. Ipswich recorded 56 digs, led by Olivier with 15, Abby Grabowska with 13 and Lindsey Grabowska with 12.

Against Beresford, Ipswich was led at the net by Sylte with four of the Lady Tigers' 12 kills. Helping to enable them were Pitz with six set assists and Heinz was next with five. A highlight of the match was the 67 IHS digs, led by Abby Grabowska with 21 and Lindsey Grabowska and Olivier with 12 each.

Ipswich was to play at Groton on Tuesday and the next IHS match will also be a road game against Waubay/Summit on August 30 and then a home match against Sully Buttes on September 4. All of these are non-conference outings.