Lady Bulldogs finish 3-2 last week; Conference season opens Tuesday

By Kelsie Hoitomt

The Boyceville volleyball team had a busy week with 12 games played between one triangular in Colfax last Tuesday and a quad in Amery last Thursday. They finished their week 1-1 in Colfax and 2-1 in Amery.

 Triangular At Colfax

The Bulldogs lost their first two games against the Vikings and won their third with final scores of 14-25, 21-25 and 15-10.

The Bulldogs played a little inconsistent at times and reacted slowly to a handful of plays, which allowed the Vikings to attack and take over in points.

Despite rolling her ankle, April Lake still led the team in kills with six against the Vikings. She sat out for a few plays in the second game to regain her composure, which opened up a spot for Brittany Tezlaff on the court.

Also playing a hard match was freshman Madysn Riek who played middle for the Bulldogs. She continues to learn and improve with each game and her instincts aid in some quality blocks and attacks.

“Mckenzie Schultz took the majority of the serve receives for us and Kennedy Hellmann did a great job talking and communicating on the floor,” explained coach Taryn Score.

Against the Vikings, Abbey Bird had two kills, Alexa Peterson and Schultz had one, Hellmann had four and Riek had two. Lake and Peterson each had a service ace as well.

The games against Plum City had a much better result for the Bulldogs with three straight wins of 25-23, 25-15 and 15-13.

“The girls played well and were able to attack and run some offense. We definitely have some things to fix though as there were nine serving errors,” said Score.

Bird blew up the court on attacks with 10 kills against the Blue Devils, followed by Lake and Hellmann with eight.

“Bird was digging and hitting well this game. When she is in  the back row she can get to where the ball is going to land almost before the hitter puts it there. And Lake, she was swinging hard and that always gets our team going,” shared Score.

Riek also had two kills in that match and Schultz added to the points with one service ace.

Quad in Amery

The Bulldogs ended their night in Amery on the high side with wins against Glenwood City and Amery, but they lost two games to Osceola.

They beat Amery 25-9 and 25-11 through the help of seven kills by Lake, five by Hellmann, two from Riek and Bird and one from Schultz. Lake and Bird each had three service aces as well to assist in their victory.

“The girls did a great job staying focused and playing our game. We tried to take advantage of the ball every time it came to our side. Lake was hitting extremely well for us and Bird was digging the ball and making good passes up to Peterson,” explained Score.

The second match was the one against Osceola where the Bulldogs lost 14-25 and 17-25.

Their numbers were down some with Hellmann and Riek having three kills each, Schultz had one, but Lake chalked up six for the team. Bird had zero kills, but she did do a great job of digging the ball up to Peterson, however those opportunities just weren’t capitalized on.

“Our hitting was not as strong as we were off balance, chipping and attacking from the back row. We need to continue to work hard to be sure to attack strong so we can send the opposing team scrambling,” said Score.

The Bulldogs bounced back and sent the Hilltoppers scrambling in the final match as they defeated them 25-8 and 25-17.

“The girls got a little sloppy in the second game, but we were able to put it together when we needed to. This was a good quad to get us ready for the beginning of Conference this week. Hopefully we will continue to improve on the things we need to to become an even stronger, more competitive team,” expressed Score.

The Lady netters opened up their conference season Tuesday (September 17) with a match at home against Elmwood. They will travel a short ways to Glenwood City this Thursday with the varsity match starting at 7:00 p.m.