Emotional farewell

Osage falls in state semis

By Kristi Nixon

CEDAR RAPIDS — Western Christian continued to be the foe Osage’s volleyball team had trouble getting past.

The Wolfpack (40-5) used a potent mix of strong kills and well-timed tips to end the Green Devils’ run at 29-10.

“State tournament…We just had a few errors every once in awhile that took the momentum away,” Osage head coach Bryan Tabbert said. “Western Christian is a great team, obviously, an outstanding program out there. It wasn’t our night tonight.”

After an opening 25-19 loss, the Green Devils put together an outstanding second set in which they accounted for 13 kills by six different players, a block and six aces, including two straight by Sydney Muller to end the 25-11 second-set win.

“We used the Sumner game as a focus in the tournament,” Tabbert said of what he told his team between that first and second set. “We’ve been down before and volleyball plays out quite a bit. Dropping one set doesn’t matter until the final outcome. We put that into perspective: we dropped the first set? So what? We can come back from that. We have to play Osage volleyball.”

Western Christian went on to take the final two sets, 25-22, 25-18.

Junior Claudia Aschenbrenner, who had a monster tournament starting with the post-season, tallied a match-high 17 kills for the Green Devils. Meredith Street added 10 and Kaebre Sullivan, nine.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Western Christian continued to be the foe Osage’s volleyball team had trouble getting past.

The Wolfpack (40-5) used a potent mix of strong kills and well-timed tips to end the Green Devils’ run at 29-10.

“State tournament…We just had a few errors every once in awhile that took the momentum away,” Osage head coach Bryan Tabbert said. “Western Christian is a great team, obviously, an outstanding program out there. It wasn’t our night tonight.”

After an opening 25-19 loss, the Green Devils put together an outstanding second set in which they accounted for 13 kills by six different players, a block and six aces, including two straight by Sydney Muller to end the 25-11 second-set win.

“We used the Sumner game as a focus in the tournament,” Tabbert said of what he told his team between that first and second set. “We’ve been down before and volleyball plays out quite a bit. Dropping one set doesn’t matter until the final outcome. We put that into perspective: we dropped the first set? So what? We can come back from that. We have to play Osage volleyball.”

Western Christian went on to take the final two sets, 25-22, 25-18.

Junior Claudia Aschenbrenner, who had a monster tournament starting with the post-season, tallied a match-high 17 kills for the Green Devils. Meredith Street added 10 and Kaebre Sullivan, nine.