Iola Middle School’s seventh-graders had some close sets on the volleyball court Monday, but could not come up with a victory.
The Mustang A team dropped three sets to visiting Santa Fe Trail, 25-13, 26-24 and 25-12.
Iola’s B team, meanwhile, fought to the bitter end in a 25-23 and 25-20 setback.
Santa Fe Trail cruised to wins of 25-4 and 25-9 in C team action.
“They were a tough team,” Iola seventh-grade coach Aubrey Westhoff said. “We had amazing moments where we kept up with them. The girls played so hard. I’m proud of them.”
Cora Boren had the A team’s only ace. She and Brynna Jelinek shared team honors with 11 quality passes. Moira Springer, Keira Goranson, Hilary Gean, Leanna Flory and Mariah Mathis also had an abundance of good passes.
Flory and Nebula Burrow each had three aces in the B team matchup. Willow Clemeter had 14 quality passes, Burrow had eight, Mathis seven, Flory six and Mariana Lara five.
Lara also had an ace in the C team match. Trinity Olive and Helena Morrison each had five good passes. Kori Winslow and Lara added three and two, respectively.
IOLA’S eighth-graders put forth the match of the night, but fell short in a valiant comeback in A team action.
After dropping the first two sets, falling 25-22 and 25-21, the Mustangs came screaming back, eking out a 25-22 win in the third set and a 25-18 victory in the fourth to set up a fifth-set tiebreaker.
That battle went back and forth. The Mustangs had four-point runs with Kinzley Fountain, Haidyn Desmarteau and Cam Wille at the serving line, but Santa Fe Trail scored the last two points to break a 14-14 deadlock to secure the tiebreaker, 16-14.
Desmarteau served up five aces, while Kashyn Curry, Hannah Thompson and Breighlynn Rutherford had four apiece. Fountain and Lily Jerome had two service aces.
Curry, Jerome, Desmarteau, Thompson, Fountain and Rutherford also had multiple good passes and hits. Bayleigh Scheibmeir and Kailyn Rodriguez also had good hits.
Santa Fe Trail beat the Iola eighth-grade B team, 25-15 and 25-17.
Leaders for Iola were Scheibmeir and Jayna Ivy, two aces apiece and Rodriguez with one ace. Scheibmeir, Blayke Folk, Macie Stokes-Huntsinger, Ivy and Rodiguez all were credited with multiple good passes and hits.
