Fillies, Lady Cubs have tough go

RICHMOND  — Iola High Fillies’ head coach Jodi Grover and Humboldt High Lady Cubs’ head coach Stephanie Splechter assessed their teams’ season opening tournament play pretty much the same way.
Their teams learned a lot in their matches at Saturday’s Central Heights High Invitational.
The Fillies and Lady Cubs met twice — once in pool play and the second time was for seventh place. Iola emerged victorious both times but had to battle back in the final match to win 28-26, 25-18.
“It really was a great day. The morning exposed the weaknesses we have and putting the second match aside, we continued to improve throughout the day,” Grover said of the Fillies’ play. “Individually, we will be working on skills to contribute more as a varsity player to enhance our team play and as a team, working on the communication, transitions and block coverage.”
Iola lost to Central Heights 25-7, 25-18 and to Rossville 25-6, 25-9 then beat Humboldt 25-18, 25-21 in pool play. Humboldt dropped decisions of 25-3, 25-10 to Rossville and 25-9, 25-12 to Central Heights.
“This tournament was a learning experience for our team,” Splechter said of the Lady Cubs’ play. “It took us a few matches to get up to varsity playing speed but we improved with every match. It was disappointing to not come home with a win but we saw a lot of positive things and the girls now know what level they have to play at on a daily basis.”
Teams moved into tournament play and both the Fillies and Lady Cubs were on the consolation side. Humboldt lost 25-21, 25-21 to Prairie View and Iola lost 27-25, 27-25 to Kansas City Metro which put the two area teams against each other in the seventh-place match.
Grover said it was hard to play Humboldt because the players on the teams know each other and in the final match each team wanted to pick up the win.
“We had our chances to beat Iola but let a 24-22 lead slip away,” Splechter said of the final match.
Grover said the first set was point-to-point to 17 when Humboldt moved ahead. Kyra Moore, a freshman, served Iola to victory 28-26. She said during the second set, senior Riana Dolenz helped the Fillies jump ahead by serving six points in a row.
“We were able to keep the momentum during this set to pull out another win,” Grover said.
Sheri Middleton, a sophomore, led the Lady Cubs’ net game with six kills and four blocks against Iola in the final match. Kindahl Young and Kayle Riebel each had three kills and Riebel had a block. Morgan Morris served up seven points, Taylyn Wells was credited with five digs and Young had two digs.
Against Prairie View, Middleton delivered seven kills and made four blocks at the net. Wells served nine points and Young had three service aces. Anna Setter had three set assists and Hannah McCall had three digs.
In the pool matches for Humboldt, Middleton had 10 blocks and four kills; Young had four kills, one block, eight digs; Darrah Tinkler had two kills; Riebel had four blocks and one kill; McCall had one kill, four digs and one service ace; Setter had one kill and four set assists; Morris had five service points.
“People who watched us throughout the day,” Grover said of Iola, “saw the moments we had when it all clicked. Building the team chemistry game by game is what it is all about. Our two freshmen — Kyra and Emery (Driskel) worked hard during their varsity debut.”
Central Heights put an 11-point run on Iola and never looked back. Grover said the Fillies responded and played better in the second set despite the loss. But the Rossville loss was tough to take.
“Rossville is a fundamentally sound team with solid hitters. We did not do very well digging up their hits. We were never in the sets because of our passing,” Grover said.
Iola bounced back to beat Humboldt in the final pool match. Grover said the Fillies’ serving was better and “the girls were getting used to each other on the floor and were more relaxed with their play.” She said fundamentals were better and Iola’s blocking began to improve in this match.
“We were ahead in both sets against KC Metro then gradually lost the lead. We did not get down on ourselves. We kept setting up the ball and looked smoother during this quicker-paced match,” Grover said.
Senior Kendra Taiclet delivered 10 kills along with seven solo blocks and four assisted blocks at the net for the five matches. Dolenz  had seven kills and three solo blocks while senior Celeste Ambrose recorded five kills and three solo blocks. Driskel had one kill and two assisted blocks and senior Kelsey Adams had one kill.
Junior libero Keli Lee came up with nine digs and Taiclet had eight digs. Adams, Driskel, junior Libby Shay and sophomore Tori Snavely each had two digs.
Grover said Iola used Shay, Moore and Snavely as setters throughout the day. Moore had 10 set assists followed by Snavely with five assists and Shay with four assists. Shay served up four aces and Taiclet and Dolenz each had two service aces.