IHS netters get win to finish regular season

Ipswich closed out its regular-season high school volleyball schedule with a 3-1 win over Herreid/Selby Area in Ipswich on Monday, October 25. When those two teams lock horns just about anything can happen and probably will.

The win sent Ipswich into its Tuesday, Nov. 2 Region 2B post-season fray with a 14-13 mark, one game over .500. The region will conclude on Thursday, Nov. 4 with the two parallel bracket championships.

Meanwhile, versus HSA, Ipswich would signal its intentions with an initial 25-20 victory, capped by a Gracie Lange kill. The Tigers weathered a late rally by the Wolverines who had trailed 22-11. And that HSA momentum seemed to carry over into the second set, even though Ipswich would jump out to an early 4-0 lead. This one indeed proved to be a back-and-forth event with Ipswich ahead 20-14 at one stage of the set after yet another Lange kill. But the visitors would outscore their hosts 11-1 from then on for a narrow 25-21 lead of their own that evened things at 1-1.

But Ipswich answered with a rather impressive 25-11 win of the third set, capped by a Katie Bierman kill. And the Tigers would close out the next set and the match with a Baylee Kulesa kill for a more difficult 25-21 victory.

Ipswich fueled its win with 112 hits in 137 attempts and featured no fewer than 44 kills. Bierman went 38 of 46 with 17 kills, Lange 31-34 with 16 kills and Kulesa, 16-18,6. Meanwhile, the visiting team completed 117 of 144 hitting attempts that included 23 kills. Ipswich would set up its offense with a perfect setting evening with 135 accurate sets that included 42 assists. Quincy Olivier went 67-67 with 24 assists and Bierman was 40-40 with nine assists.

Ipswich finished 69 of 76 at the service line, including 13 aces. Olivier was 17-17 with four aces and Kulesa 15-16 with two aces. The visitors countered with a 76 of 81 serving evening featuring four aces.

The Tigers came up with 73 team digs, led by Madison Geditz with 25 and Kulesa with 15; the Wolverines, 93 digs. All those digs from both sides of the net would lead to some long rallies as you might guess. Kulesa and Kaylin Onken each obtained a solo block as well.

The lone IHS senior netter this year is Tasia Rivera.