Lady Hilltoppers start conference season 0-2

By Kelsie Hoitomt

The Lady Hilltoppers started their Dunn-St. Croix Conference season against the St. Croix Central Panthers last Tuesday night where they went 1-3. They then hosted the Boyceville Bulldogs on Thursday and lost in three sets.

Match against SCC

It was a shoot out against the Panthers with Central winning the first two sets, 25-17 and 25-16. Then the Hilltoppers found their rhythm and rallied back to stop the Panthers with a 25-19 victory.

This put the match into an “overtime” type scenario with a fourth set needing to be played to determine the victor. This resulted in a Central win of 25-15.

Hannah Ludtke led the team in points scored as she put down four kills. Kelly Perkins posted two kills and a service ace. Kristie Knops had one kill for the team. Megan Samens and Kayla Bloss each had one kill and one service ace. Kenzie Kruse landed three service aces as well and Mikaela Voeltz had one.

On the defense, it was Voeltz who worked to set up the ball from the back row with 25 successful serve receives. Bloss also had 17 digs and Knops posted 15, which were successfully put up to Kruse who is the team’s setter.

At the net, it was Perkins who aided in the team’s defense as she got her hands on four solo blocks as well as three assisted blocks.

Home against BV

It was a tough night of volleyball at home last Thursday as the Lady Toppers weren’t able to put a string of points together in order to beat the Bulldogs. They lost in three straight sets of 25-16, 25-10 and 25-6.

The Hilltoppers were able to put the ball in the air on the serve receive, but struggled to make a hard enough connection on the attack to score. The Bulldogs took advantage of this and were able to put themselves under the ball and send it back over the net for points.

Helping to score points for the Hilltoppers was Ludtke, Samens and Bloss with two kills each. Bloss also had two service aces against the Bulldogs.