Iola High School hosted a varsity volleyball invitational Saturday morning with various schools from around the area.
Riverton finished in first place followed by Paola and Parsons to round out the top three. Coming in fourth was Burlington, followed by Crest, Anderson County, Iola and Labette County.
Iola High School
The Iola Mustangs (1-6) varsity volleyball team finished in seventh place, falling in all three of the matchups they played against Parsons, Burlington and Crest.
Against Parsons, the Mustangs lost 25-19 and 25-16. Mustangs Alana Mader and Mariah Jelinek went a perfect five-for-five at the serving line.
Against Burlington, the Mustangs put up more of a fight, losing 25-21 and 25-22. Mustang Reese Curry led in serving with five aces while Elza Clift went 10-for-10 on serves with three aces. Aysha Houk totaled four digs and a good passing average of 2.1.
“It was a rough day for Iola volleyball. We hurt ourselves a lot with unnecessary errors and gave two teams more points from our errors than they even had to earn. Everyone has bad days, but when only three members of the team have a good day, it makes it hard to win as a team,” said Iola head coach Amanda Holman.
Iola stumbled to Crest in two of three sets, 19-25, 25-21 and 18-25. Houk led the way in serving with a perfect 10-for-10 with a lone ace while Curry went 16-for-17 at the serving line.
Mustang Alana Mader led the team with nine kills and Clift and Houk both led in passing average with a total of 2.2.
“We will regroup, maybe shake some things up, and be back to start league play. This team has the potential to be very competitive, we just have to learn to apply it every point and not let ourselves get in our own head,”
it every point and not let ourselves get in our own head,” Holman said.
Iola travels to Prairie View on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m.
Crest High School
The Crest Lady Lancers (8-3) finished in fifth place and began their day dropping a pair of sets to Burlington, 25-18 and 25-19. One of the bright spots for Crest was they served 34-of-38 balls to their advantage for an 89% serve success rate and six aces as a team.
“We never really got our offense going in the first match. We only had 9 kills total against Burlington. That is not going to cut it. We did not play together, stopped talking, and lost the focus on the team,” said Crest head coach Abigail Hermreck.
