GIRARD — Things were looking good early for Iola High’s volleyball team Monday.
The Mustangs had shaken off a cold start, rebounding from an early 5-0 deficit against West Franklin to open the Class 3A Regional Tournament.
Iola eventually knotted the score at 10-10, took its first lead at 16-15 and made the winning plays to secure the first set, 25-22.
Iola rode that momentum into Set 2, roaring ahead 13-7, and looking all the world like a team ready to challenge for a regional title.
That momentum changed on a dime. West Franklin charged out of a timeout in that fateful second set and outscored Iola, 13-4, to take the lead.
But all was not lost. Iola kept things close until the set, and match, hinged on a fateful rally with West Franklin leading 21-18.
Players from both teams were on high alert, making key saves and futile attempts to get the ball past the other.But the rally ended when an Iola return landed just out of bounds to give the Falcons a 22-18 advantage.
The Falcons closed out the set, 25-19, and blitzed the Mustangs to take a 14-4 lead in the third-set tiebreaker.
Iola clawed its way back to within three on multiple occasions, but drew no closer, as the Falcons won the set, 25-21, to secure the match, 2-1.
The crestfallen Mustangs had little opportunity to rebound — players were dabbing tears from their eyes as they took the court against top seed Girard — and the host Trojans took control early and never relented, 25-13 and 25-15.
The two losses ensured Iola’s postseason run was over at night’s end, regardless of the Mustangs’ third match against Columbus.
For the record, Iola cruised to a 25-14 and 25-18 win over the Titans, but it was little salve for the dejected squad that ended its 2024 campaign much earlier than most were expecting, and with a 21-15 record.
“Disappointed,” Iola head coach Amanda Holman said. “I honestly didn’t see that coming. I thought we were prepared. Obviously, we knew we had to earn it, and after taking that first set, I thought, all right, the girls came to play. We’ve got this.
“And then it went south.”
The West Franklin match turned, in part, when Iola took a more defensive approach to rallies instead of being the aggressor.
