Ipswich wins the Tigers' battle

Ipswich won a girls' volleyball clash 3-2 over Mobridge-Pollock in a battle of the Tigers Monday in the Tiger Den.

Volleyball matches can and often do have some momentum changes, especially those that go the distance and that was certainly true of Monday's match. This marathon had multiple momentum swings even within an individual set. That was certainly true  in the fifth set tie-breaker. Ipswich gets down 5-0 right away in the OT where Gracie Lange finally gets Ipswich on the board with her kill and after that Lange would end the set and match 15-13 with another  bombshell.

“We had called time out and changed our serve receive pattern to see if we could hide Gracie from them and then let her take a big swing from a different angle,” Coach Trent Osborne said. “Baylee (Kulesa) made a great pass and Quincy (Olivier) set one against the flow of the defense which made the block a little late and Gracie put a great swing on the ball. It was the little spark we needed to get our confidence back.”

Mobridge-Pollock sustained  its third loss of the season while Ipswich improved to 14-10 with the non-conference victory.

The host Tigers would signal their early intentions with a 25-21 win of the first set. But M-P quickly regrouped with a 25-12 win of set number two. Then Ipswich would restore order with a 25-16 win of the third set to put itself into the drivers' seat. But the visitors weren't quite ready to board their bus with a 25-22 win of the fourth set to even the match at 2-2. And you know what happened then!

Five-set matches usually have some impressive statistics and that was certainly true of this one. The hosts finished with a 144 of 170 night at the net, including 48 kills. Kulesa led their attack with a 58-65 hitting evening featuring 22 kills, followed by Lange at 53-68 with 19 kills and Olivier at 15-16 with three kills. Mobridge-Pollock's Charley Henderson would lead their net attack with a 23 of 25 hitting evening with 13 kills.

Ipswich distributed 117 setting attempts without  a miss and included 44 assists. Olivier went 102-102 with 41 assists and Madison Geditz was 7-7 with two assists.

Meanwhile at the serving line Ipswich would finish 86 of 94 attempts with seven aces. Madison Geditz was 21-22 with six aces and Vanesa Diaz, 15-17 with the remaining ace. The visitors had seven aces as well.

Ipswich had 85 digs led by Madison Geditz with 33 and Kulesa with 17. Reagan Weisbeck would lead Mobridge-Pollock's defense with 28 digs. Ipswich added one solo block and six assisted blocks, led by Marley Guthmiller with three assists and Lange with two.

“What an exciting match last evening. A 3-2 victory over (19-2 Class A) Mobridge-Pollock” Osborne said. “During that match, Quincy Olivier set a new record for assists in a match. Quincy found her hot hitters 41 times and surpassed the record of 39 set by Kamryn Heinz in 2017 against Herreid-Selby Area.”