Lady Tigers meet two LRC powerhouses

Ipswich bumped heads with a couple of traditional LRC powerhouse teams in high school volleyball action earlier last week, prepping for its own invitational tourney on Saturday.

The Lady Tigers indeed traveled to Warner on Tuesday, Sept. 17 and lost that league match by a 3-1 verdict. The Lady Tigers then hosted league foe Northwestern Area two nights later in the Tiger Den and were defeated 3-0 by the Wildcats.

In the Tuesday match, Ipswich actually got off to a great start with a 25-22 victory. But the Lady Tigers couldn't sustain that momentum the rest of the way, especially after dropped a hard-fought second-set outcome 32-30. The third set was still quite close with the hosts winning it 25-21, but they clinched the fourth set (and match) 25-16.

Ipswich was out-hit 123 to 84 and the hosts also included a 50-36 kills edge. But the Lady Tigers' attack was quite balanced, led by Paige Mehlberg, Halle Heinz and Halie Feldman with seven kills apiece. Each team had eight service aces, but the Monarchs enjoyed an overall 91-82 service-line edge. Heinz finished 19-22 at the line with three aces and Chesney Olivier 19-19,2. In setting, Ipswich was 89-94 with 34 assists, led by Heinz and Bailey Pitz with 16 assists apiece.

Ipswich had 90 digs, led by Olivier with 33 and Avery Sylte was next with 22. Mehlberg added seven blocks and the team totaled nine.

Back home in Ipswich, the Lady Tigers sustained 25-14, 25-12 and 25-16 setbacks to the Wildcats. The visitors gradually pulled away in each of their set wins. In hitting they were 87-98 with 42 kills; Ipswich, 63-79 with 24 kills. Heinz led the Lady Tigers with a 13-17, eight-kills effort. At the line Ipswich went 40-44 with two aces, led by Heinz 8-9 with one of the aces and Feldman, 7-9 with the remaining ace. Northwestern finished 69-74 there with five aces. Ipswich was 68-69 in setting with 16 assists, paced by Heinz who finished 35-36 with nine assists.

Ipswich had 44 digs, led by Olivier with 17 and Heinz with 11.

The twin setbacks dropped Ipswich to 1-2 in the conference standings.