Lake Mills Volleyball takes 2nd at Algona Tournament

Lake Mills 4-1 (2nd place on the day)

7-1 overall and 16-2 in sets on the season

3-0 in the TIC

@ Eagle Grove on Thursday

vs Storm Lake 21-9, 21-7

vs Spirit Lake 21-17, 21-13

vs Estherville-Lincoln Central 21-18, 21-18

vs Algona 21-15, 21-7

vs Sioux Central 19-21, 16-21

Storm Lake:

We got off to a great start vs Storm Lake.  After an early bus time and a long trip, we were able to get things rolling right away.  We built an early lead in set 1 and controlled the tempo of the game.  In set 2 we lead 6-5 early, but Storm Lake had missed 4 serves.  We just were not earning our own point early on.  We did go on some nice long runs later to control the match.

Spirit Lake:

They are always a good team with great athletes.  There are always in and out of the rankings in 3A so this was one of our big matches on the day.  In set 1 we couldn’t have started much slower.  We trailed 0-5 then 1-7 to start.  Spirit Lake was aggressive and in system, while we were struggling to handle the ball.    From that point on we played very well.  We went on a 9-2 run and battled fairly close the rest of the way to win 21-17.  In set 2 we were 1st to 5 and to 10 points and that is something we like to do.  I felt we forced them into a lot of mistakes and steal some points throughout the set. I was very happy with this win because of the respect we have for their program.

In our 3rd match of the day, we couldn’t have played with much less energy and passion.  ELC is a much-improved program and they have some confidence growing on their team.  We trailed 7-10 before we took our 1st timeout and refocused ourselves a bit.  We then jumped to a 12-10 lead before once again losing some momentum and we found ourselves trailing 15-18 and things didn’t look good.  But the girls rattled off 6 straight to win 21-18.  Set 2 we started strong and built a 16-9 lead and looked to be in control but ELC scored 8 of the next 11 points ti o pull within 2 at 19-17 but we did just enough to win 21-18.

In set 4 on the day, we faced off against the host school in Algona.  In the last 25 years, this has always been a great rivalry.  They have a couple of big hitters but I felt like we did a great job of not letting them hurt us and forced them into too many errors.  In both sets, we played aggressively to control the entire match.

Our day ended with Sioux Center.  They are the #4 ranked team in 3A this year and came in undefeated.  I felt we played very well overall in the 1st set.  We built leads throughout the 1st set but couldn’t close the deal.  We hung with them but need to finish sets vs great teams if we want to compete with them.  Set 2 we jumped out early to a 7-3 lead but didn’t keep our foot on the gas enough to fend them off.  They also beat us with their brains.  They adjusted their game on the fly, which you have to be able to do to beat quality teams.  We lost 2 close sets to a highly rated 3A team but I felt like we let both sets get away from us.  We can beat teams like this but you have to play a complete match to do it.

Anytime you can play 5 schools all bigger than you including the #4 ranked team and come out 4-1 you have to feel good about things.  But, this team is competitive and has to work hard at adjusting their game as a match progresses.

Stats are on Bound.