The Superior Express -

The L-N Lady Raider's volleyball team continued playing schools in higher classes last week. The results were one win and one loss. The loss coming from Class C-2 Superior. The game summaries:

L/N – Palmer: 25-13, 25-12, 25-22: Yes, this is not the same game against Palmer that was reported on last week. The schedule just happened to work out this way. However, the trip up to Palmer was successful and L/N came home with their second win of the season. The highlight of the game seemed to come from the service line. The Raiders totaled 20 ace serves for the night, seems a higher number than we've seen before.

Set 1: Serving (ace serves) were critical at the start of this game. Elsa Jorgensen started the game with an ace. Aleah Heikkinen followed to tie the score at 3-3 and the third Raider server (Emma Epley) followed with another ace to tie the game at 5-5. L/N slowly built a lead with good volleyball skills. There were no long rallies in the game right up until the end. The Raiders won two rallies, one with a kill by Emily Miller and one with Palmer hitting the ball out of bounds.

Set 2: Six ace serves were highlighted throughout this set. Emma Epley served the first two early in the set and the final ace to score the 25th point. She was joined with two by Aleah and one by Katelyn Mazour. Few long rallies in this set but kills by Emily and Tori Miller were fun to watch.

Set 3: Four of the first five points for L/N were ace serves, all by Aleah. Emily added an ace to give L/N an 8-4 lead. Palmer rebounded however and tied the score at 8-8. The game remained close, tied the last time at 12-12. In spite of hitting errors, Palmer kept close in the last half of play. However, an ace serve by Elsa and one later by Emma kept L/N above board. Fittingly, the game ended with an ace serve by Katelyn.

L/N had a good offense attack throughout the night recording 20 kills for the match (Emily 8 and Emma 5) to go along with the 20 ace serves.

(Kills – Ace – Digs)

Aleah Heikkinen 1, 7, 3; Emma Epley 6, 5, 8; Elsa Jorgensen 1, 3, 3; Katelyn Mazour 3, 2, 9; Emily Troudt 0, 2, 0; Avery Mazour 0,0, 2; Tori Miller 2, 0, 2; Emily Miller 8, 1, 5; Mackenzie Ostdiek 0, 0, 0.

Ball Handling: Katelyn: 42 of 43 with 11 Assists; Emma: 15 of 15 with 5 Assists.

Serve Receiving: As a team 39 of 40 good with Elsa having 14 of 15 good receives.

Blocking: Emily had three solo blocks.

L/N – Superior: 22-25, 21-25, 22-25: Most games against our neighbor to the south, Superior, are always interesting, and this year was no exception . . . except for the outcome. The Raiders stepped up two class to host the C-2 Superior Wildcats who were among the top C-2 school during the last several years. The three-set loss may give you the idea Superior won rather easily, however, the truth is far from that.

First off, the difference in the scores was only three or four points. Secondly, if you watched the game you might have been impressed by the number of times the score was tied. In the first set, the score was tied nine times; second set: seven times; and third set tied nine times. Nothing was easy for either team.

Set 1: L/N scored first and led 4-0 early on. Superior tied the game at 9-9 and from there on, they traded points until Superior had a 4-0 scoring run at the end of the Set.

Set 2: The score was tied seven times, the last being 15-15. Superior put together a 6-0 scoring run to take the lead they never gave up.

Set 3: It looked like Superior might just run away with this Set, leading 6-1 early on. However, with Elsa serving two aces, L/N tied the score at 7-7. Again, the teams traded points and the score was tied nine times between 7-7 and 18-18. Superior was given several points with Raider hitting errors and the Set ended with a Superior tip ball that found the Raiders out of position.

Avery Mazour attempts to hit around a Superior block attempt. Photo courtesy of Denise Mazour.

A loss is never easy to take, but the Raiders played proudly as they took on the larger class school.

The Raider hitting was equal to or better than the Palmer game, but Superior is also a better team than Palmer. Emma with 9 and Emily Miller with 6 led the team in kills; Serving Aces was down greatly from the Palmer game with only 5 for the team.

(Kills – Aces)

Aleah Heikkinen 2, 0; Emma Epley 9, 0; Elsa Jorgensen 0, 2; Katelyn Mazour 3,0; Emily Troudt 0, 1; Avery Mazour 0, 0; Tori Miller 1, 0; Emily Miller 6, 2.

Ball Handling: Katelyn 10 assists and Emma 6 assists.

Serve receptions: Elsa 19 of 23, Emily Miller 16-21.

Blocking: Emma 2 solo blocks.

A busy schedule includes a trip to Friend High School this week Tuesday; to Deshler on Thursday and a tournament in Friend on Saturday.