It’s a good thing fans were wearing face masks at Iola Middle School’s season-opening volleyball matches Thursday.
Otherwise, they likely would have spent the afternoon biting their fingernails to the nubs, with several tightly fought matches throughout the evening.
Iola’s eighth-grade A team won in straight sets, doing so in dramatic fashion each time, defeating visiting Anderson County, 26-24, 25-23, 27-25.
“It’s always great to start off a season with a victory,” head coach Terri Carlin said. “The games were close, but the girls worked hard to earn the win. This is a strong bunch of girls, and we had some great serves and attacks that helped us make up for some simple errors.”
The eighth-grade B team went down to the wire as well, with Anderson County winning the decisive fifth set, 15-13.
In the A team matchup, Reece Curry led the way with 11 ace serves and eight kills.
“Curry did a great job all around,” Carlin said. “She has the ability to find the open spots on the court.”
Kaysin Crusinberry had five aces, two kills and an assist. Elza Clift stepped in as setter and had five assists to go with an ace and two kills. Alana Mader had three ace serves, two assists and a kill. Annemarie McCullough had three aces. Shae McCain had an assist and a kill. Mariah Jelinek had two kills.
Brooklyn Ellis led the eighth-grade B team with 10 ace serves and an assist.
“Ellis is always cheering for her teammates through the good and the bad,” Carlin said.
Kinsey Schinstock, Hannah Fleming, and Hailey Stogsdill had three aces each. Maya Shaughnessy and Morgan Wilson each had two ace serves. Tavia Skahan, Maleigha Molina, Kenleigh Westhoff, Baylie Crooks, LaPrincia Pulley and Fleming each had one kill.
As an aside, Thursday’s matches were the first ever for the Iola Middle School Mustangs.
The team name was changed from Ponies to the Mustangs by the USD 257 Board of Education, effective this school year.
IOLA’S seventh-grade squads weren’t as fortunate.
The A team fell in three sets (25-19, 25-10, 25-9) and the B team fell in four hard-fought sets (25-19, 25-18, 25-27, 25-15.)
Izzy Tyson led the way for the A team with three aces, followed by Carly Kramer with two and Arianna Werner and Faith Warden with one.
