Riceville rallies come up short
By Kristi Nixon
DUNKERTON — All three sets the Riceville volleyball team had to rally against Dunkerton in this road Iowa Star North Conference match.
Each of the three times, the Wildcats saw a close set go the Raiders’ way in a 3-0 sweep on Tuesday, Sept. 19.
At one point in the opener, coach Missy McElroy’s team trailed 20-11, only to come within 22-20, forcing the Raiders to call timeout. They eventually tied the game at 23-23 with back-to-back kills by Lily Fair, including a nice placement in the right corner, but much like the next two sets, Dunkerton found a way to close it out in the 25-23, 25-20, 25-22 Raiders’ win.
And in set two, Dunkerton found itself with a point after it committed a clear double-hit that wasn’t called. When the play continued, Riceville finished with a hitting error to make it 15-11 in favor of the Raiders instead of the Wildcats coming within 14-12.
“I actually thought we played pretty well,” coach McElroy said. “I thought it was called pretty evenly both ways. We didn’t get some calls; they didn’t get some calls. I wasn’t too upset about the calls so much. We were down 20-11 that first set and we came back and almost beat them. Each set (of the first two), we got down and then we come back. Our goal in the third set was to not get down and we stuck with them. It was 18-22, and then we came back. We couldn’t seem to close it out….”
The full story and more photos will be found in the Sept. 27 print and e-editions of the Enterprise Journal.
