The Superior Express -

The L-N Lady Raiders were busy last week . . .

Maybe that's an understatement but L-N went into the week with five games and a 3-2 won-loss record before last week. After last week, they added 3 more wins and two more losses to their record. Games on Tuesday and Thursday and three games on Saturday filled up the days. As such, the volleyball team sports a record of six wins and four losses for the season.

The losses all came to higher class team: 2 C-2 teams and 2 D-1 teams.

In any case, brief summaries of each game follows:

L-N – FRIEND: 25-20, 25-11, 25-9: Two home games may have helped get the girls into the spirit as after a tough start in the first set, L-N settled in and dominated the last two sets for this fourth win of the season. The first set was tied at 17-17 before the Raiders recorded a couple of ace serves, took advantage of several Friend hitting errors and ended with Aleah Heikkinen tipping the ball over the net to an empty spot on the Friend court.

Sets 2 and 3 were similar in that the Raiders used the Ace Serve to register many points. Hanna Skinner had six for the night and Emma Epley five and Elsa Jorgensen four. Those ace serves contributed to scoring runs as well. L-N had an 11-1 scoring run in Set 2 and a 14-1 scoring run in the last set. Aleah Heikkinen led the team in kills with nine for the night. Emma, Kylie and Kara each had four. On defense Katelyn and Elsa recorded seven and six Digs respectively. Katelyn as good on 29 of 30 ball handling attempts with 14 Assists while Elsa was 12 of 12 in handling serves from Friend.

(Kills, Ace, Digs) Sydney Biltoft 3, 0, 2; Aleah Heikkinen 9, 1, 5; Emma Epley 4, 5, 4; Elsa Jorgensen 0, 4, 6; Hanna Skinner 1, 6, 2; Katelyn Mazour 2, 1, 7; Emily Troudt 1, 0, 0; Kylie Beard 4, 2, 0; Kara Menke 4, 0, 1;

Assists: Katelyn Mazour 29 of 30 with 14 Assists, Emma 14 of 15 with 7 assists.

Blocks: -0-

Serve Receive: Elsa 12 of 12, Aleah 7 of 7, Hanna 5 of 6.

L-N – DESHLER: 25-22, 19-25, 25-20, 25-15: On Thursday evening Deshler came for a visit in Nelson but went home empty handed except for one Set victory.

The biggest highlight of this game came at the net. L-N had 89 of 110 attacks good with almost 10 Kills/Set for the night. Deshler had 93 of 109 attacks good with just over eight Kills/Set. Emma recorded 18 Kills.

Ace serves was another highlight with Emma and Katelyn each recording six apiece.

Blocking has not been a large part of the defense so far this season but Sydney and Kylie each had three block assists.

Katelyn was the primary ball handler with 45 of 46 good and having 18 assists as well. Emma was 32 of 35 with nine assists.

(Kills, Ace, Digs) Sydney Biltoft 6, 0, 1; Aleah Heikkinen 4, 1, 13; Emma Epley 18, 6, 4; Elsa Jorgensen 1, 2, 15; Katelyn Mazour 3, 6, 8; Emily Troudt 0, 0, 0; Hanna Skinner 1, 2, 7; Kylie Beard 1, 0, 3; Kara Menke 5, 0, 1;

Assists: Katelyn 18, Emma 9.

Blocks: All Assists: Sydney 3, Aleah 1, Emma 1, Kylie 3.

Serve Receive: Elsa 31 of 33; Aleah 13 of 17; Hanna 10 of 11.

FRIEND Tournament on

Saturday

L-N – SUTTON: 25-23, 15-25, 8-25: Another visit to Class C-2 didn't work out for L-N at the Friend Invitational. This game was with Sutton and the Raiders may have surprised the successful Sutton team as they won the first set of the game. However, all those positive action that worked in the first two games of the week, just didn't go as well against the bigger team.

As the game progressed, Emma led the team at the net with seven kills. Ace serves were scarce with one each from Emma and Katelyn. L-N had maybe their best night of blocking of the season as Aleah, Sydney and Emma each had solo blocks. The Raiders played with heart, but that was not enough to win the game.

(Kills, Ace, Digs) Sydney Biltoft 1, 0, 0; Aleah Heikkinen 4, 0, 4; Emma Epley 7, 1, 7; Elsa Jorgensen 0, 0, 11; Katelyn Mazour 3, 1, 6; Emily Troudt 0, 0, 0; Hanna Skinner 1, 0, 0; Kylie Beard 0, 0, 4; Kara Menke 1, 0, 3.

Assists: Katelyn 39 of 40 with 7 Assists; Emma 24 of 26 with 6 assists.

Blocks: Solo blocks: Aleah, Sydney, Emma 1 each; Assists: Sydney 2, Emma 2.

Serve Receive: Elsa 16 of 17; Hanna 12 of 16; Aleah 12 of 13Emma 6 of 8; Sydney 6 of 6.

L-N – MERIDIAN: 21-25, 19-25: Class D-1 Meridian now have a 6-1 record and L-N gave them a good fight. In the statistics, it was a give and take situation.

L-N had 15 Kills for the night, but Meridian had 22. L-N served seven Aces while Meridian only had four. Solo blocks were even with each team having two.

(Kills, Ace, Digs) Sydney Biltoft 1, 0, 0; Aleah Heikkinen 2, 0, 3; Emma Epley 5, 6, 9; Elsa Jorgensen 0, 1, 14; Katelyn Mazour 2, 0, 6; Emily Troudt 0, 0, 0; Hanna Skinner 0, 0, 5; Kylie Beard 2, 0, 0; Kara Menke 3, 0, 4.

Assists: Katelyn 30 of 30 with 7 Assists; Emma 19 of 21 with 4 Assists.

Blocks: Aleah 2 solo blocks.

Serve Receive: Elsa 17-17, Aleah 11-11, Sydney 5-6.

L-N – EXETER-MILLIGAN: 25-19, 25-23: For the final game of the tourney, L-N returned to Class D-2 competition in meeting Exeter- Milligan (E-M) who carried a 4-4 record into the match with the Raiders.

Kylie Beard has the full attention of the official in this picture taken during the Sutton game. Kylie looks to push the ball over the net as two Sutton defenders look how to best stop her.

The two close Sets were not perfect for L-N, but they did a lot of "little" things correctly. At the net, they had only six errors while E-M had 10. Also at the net, L-N pounded down 21 Kills while E-M had 15. Emma had 27 of 30 good hits with nine Kills and Aleah was 16 of 17 with six Kills added to the list.

Led by Emma's four Ace serves, L-N held a slim 8-7 advantage in ace serves. Maybe the best advantage L-N had was in serve receptions. L-N had only four errors here while E-M had 10.

(Kills, Ace, Digs) Sydney Biltoft 1, 0, 0; Aleah Heikkinen 6, 0, 10; Emma Epley 9, 4, 6; Elsa Jorgensen 0, 1, 11; Katelyn Mazour 1, 1, 8; Emily Troudt 2, 0, 1; Hanna Skinner 0, 1, 4; Kylie Beard 0, 1, 4; Kara Menke 2, 0, 1.

Assists: Katelyn 32 of 32 with 11 Assists; Emma 17 of 17 with 5 Assists.

Blocks: Sydney and Aleah 1 solo block each; Katelyn and Kylie each 1 Assist.

Serve Receive: Elsa 12 of 12; Aleah 7 of 9; Hanna 4 of 5.

The volleyball team's busy schedule continues this week with a triangular at Harvard on Tuesday; the Homecoming game on Thursday vs. Shelton and next Tuesday the Lady Raiders host a triangular at Nelson.