Erin O’Brien tips one over for Kimball against the HLWW Lakers Thursday, Sept. 13. Staff photo by Ariel Laabs.
By Pat Garry, Staff Writer
The Lady Cubs struggled last week, losing to Litchfield, 3-0, Tuesday, Sept. 11, and dropping three straight sets to Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted on Thursday.
(Litchfield Match) Set scores were 21-25, 21-25, and 14-25. “The first couple of sets were competitive, within just a few points, and then we fell off to lose the third set, 14-25. Our struggles were serve/receive and hitting. We had more receive errors than we did good receives,” commented Coach Tabitha Mortenson. To Litchfield’s credit, they passed the ball well in serve/receive and excelled on digs. Highlights include Emma Antigua with 6 kills, 5 assists, and 3 blocks. Erin O’Brien had 3 blocks, and Bailey Joseph came up with 12 digs.
(HLWW Match) Thursday night proved to be difficult for the Cubs, as they lost by set scores of 5-25, 16-25, and 17-25. “Their 6-foot 2-inch middle hitter, senior Isabelle Roufs, was hard for us to defend. She went over our blocks most of the time and was able to tip aggressively to our open spots, when she wasn’t putting the ball down,” Coach Mortenson said. The Lakers served aggressively and the Kimball girls struggled with receiving. Hence, the lack of efficient passing prevented the Cubs from establishing any sort of effective offense.
“Our set scores improved because we had fewer errors in sets two and three. In set three we hung with them for the first
7 points of the game, but we allowed 6 points in a row because of our errors,” said Coach Mortenson. Match highlights: Emma Antigua, 5 kills and Julia Zipoy registered 4. Hailey Bue and Megan Serbus each had 2 aces, and Megan also had 7 digs.