ST. PAUL — Crest High’s Lady Lancers stayed aggressive, but came up on the short end of some tough volleyball matches Tuesday.
Crest fell to Southern Coffey County, 25-15, 25-18, to host St. Paul, 25-20, 25-9, and to Pleasanton, 25-11, 25-20.
“I was proud of the girls for how they worked together and came back during the close games,” head coach Abigail Hermreck said. “I keep reminding the girls that things are going to come together for us. We played aggressively. The talking was better most of the evening, and we made some great plays. We are continuing to work on the things we can control, and look to our seniors for leadership. We have to keep pulling together and fight to move forward. We still have a lot of fight in us.”
Senior Emily Frank led Crest with six ace serves.
 Crest plays at home against Burlington and Yates Center next Tuesday.
“It will be great to finally break in the new court,” Hermreck said.

FORT SCOTT — Iola High’s freshman volleyball team kicked off a busy week Tuesday with a quadrangular meet at Fort Scott.
The Fillies went 1-2 on the day, defeating Field Kindley of Coffeyville, 25-7, 25-15, before falling to Chanute, 25-15, 25-18, and Fort Scott, 25-21, 25-14.
“I see that the girls are understanding the game is much faster at the high school level,” Fillies freshmen coach Jeff Fehr said. “They are picking up the concepts better every day.”
Leading servers were Sydney Wade and Toni Macha, while Wade led the squad with assists. Macha and Riley Murry led the team in kills.
The freshmen are in Louisburg on Thursday and in Prairie View for a tournament Saturday.

PARSONS — Iola High’s junior varsity tennis squad continues to get valuable experience and show improvement on the court, head coach Jennifer Bycroft said.
Singles players Chyanne Vaughn and Khrystal Smith both went 1-2 on the day, while doubles teams of Allyson Hobbs and Kelsey Hale and Baleigh Seiber and Shana Moore went 0-3.
Vaughn, no. 1 singles player, defeated Jordan Shreppel of Labette County, 6-3, and fell to Abi Felter of Fort Scott, 6-0, and Abbie Ford of Parsons, 6-5. Vaughn overcame a five-point deficit to Ford before finally succumbing in a 7-4 tiebreaker.
“Chyanne has been doing well in the singles spot,” Bycroft said. “She places the ball well and really moves her opponent. Forcing the tiebreaker says a lot at how hard she had to work to get there.”
Smith also went 1-2.
She fell to Selena Perez of Labette County, 6-3, before defeating Breanna Leslie of Fort Scott, 6-4. Smith dropped a 6-4 decision to Alea Blackburn of Labette County.
“This was Khrystal’s first time playing singles,” Byrcoft said. “She handled it well and really showed a lot of hustle out there, never giving up on a ball. She has improved quite a bit since last season.”
Hobbs and Hale fell to Cicero and Benedict of Pittsburg and Cunningham and Adams of Fort Scott by identical scores of 6-0. They fell to Franklin and Brodericks of Neodesha, 6-1.
“I paired Allyson and Kelsey because I knew they would work well together,” Bycroft said. “This is Kelsey’s first time playing tennis competitively. Even though the scores don’t indicate this, by even the second match I saw improvement and things were starting to flow a little easier. Allyson showed a lot of hustle, and Kelsey had a few good winners at the net.”
The score also didn’t indicate the competitiveness shown by Seeber and Moore, Bycroft said.
The duo fell to Perez and Albertson of Labette County, 6-1, to Natt and Gandhi of Parsons, 6-1, and to Williams and Diaz of Fort Scott, 6-3.
“I was pleased, especially with the last match these girls played,” Bycroft said. “Baleigh has played a lot before, so I was counting on her to help Shana. This is Shana’s first time ever playing, and there’s definitely a lot to learn, but she was moving better by the third match, and was getting some serves in, too. Baleigh always gives 100 percent on the court.”

HUMBOLDT — Humboldt High’s volleyball squad picked up a pair of impressive wins Tuesday, sweeping past visiting Oswego and Neodesha.
The Lady Cubs downed Neodesha 25-20, 25-15, before rolling past Oswego, 25-14, 27-25.
“We had a much better outing tonight,” Lady Cub head coach Stephanie Splechter said. “The girls played hard and we were more in sync. It is a good jumping off point for us.”
Breanna Kline led the way against Neodesha with nine kills and four digs, while Sheri Middleton and Kayle Riebel added seven and five kills, respectively. Middleton also had three blocks, Riebel, two. Delaney Umholtz racked up 11 points on serve.
Middleton was a spark against Oswego as well, with eight kills and a block. Annalise Whitcomb had three digs, while Kline had five kills and two digs. Riebel had four kills and a dig to go with 11 points on serve.
Humboldt’s varsity squad returns to action next Tuesday at home against Cherryvale and Altoona-Midway. The junior varsity is at a tournament in Moran Saturday.

Iola Middle School’s volleyball teams opened the home portions of their schedule with some competitive matches against an old rival.
The eighth-grade A team dropped a pair of tough matches, losing to host Royster 27-25, 25-22, in the A team contest, and 25-19, 25-18 in B team action.
The seventh-grade squad defeated Royster in three sets, 25-16, 22-25 and 15-9. The seventh-grade B team fell 25-11, 25-7.
Eighth-grade coach Terri Carlin praised her team’s effort and execution, despite the loss.
The A team match was well played by both teams, she said.
“We were right in the first set, but just came up short at the end,” she said. “We let them get a little ahead in the second set and came back, but we couldn’t get the lead. The girls did not make many mistakes.”
Scout Rush had five ace serves and two kills. Colbi Riley had three ace serves and four kills, while Katie Bauer had an ace and two kills. Sophie Whitney had two ace serves and a dig. Madison Carlin and Emma Weseloh each had four assists.
“Our passers worked hard at moving the ball and making plays,” Carlin said. “Our setters, Madison and Emma, did a great job.”
The B team also did well in its first outing of the season, Carlin said.
“The girls did a great job of working together,” she said. “Olivia Taylor did an excellent job of moving to the ball to make some great passes. Olivia is a real hustler, and is really starting to anticipate where the ball is going to be. Carley Cescon is playing her first year of volleyball and doing an excellent job as setter.”

THE SEVENTH grade shined on the home court, head coach Stacy Sprague said.
“It was a great night for middle school volleyball,” Sprague said. “It was the girls’ first night in front of the home crowd.”
In the A team victory, Mia Aronson led the way with five aces, while Jayden Jackson had two and Piper Moore and Shaylee Sutterby had one apiece. Moore had six kills and six hits, while Kassy Shelby had a hit and Aronson had three hits.
“Our serving was much better at 67 percent,” Sprague said.
The B team struggled with serving, Sprague said.
“We have 17 girls to play in two matches,” she said. “Learning the mechanics of the game is hard when you have so many girls, and they all deserve playing time. They are making improvements in practice and learning the

Results from Wednesday:
Third and fourth grade
Iola Gold 12, Yates Center 7: Iola gold received second-half touchdowns of one and five yards by Cooper Riley, the second of which came with 4:48 left in the game. Wesley Bauer’s 70-yard kickoff return accounted for Yates Center’s only score at the end of the third quarter.
Fifth and sixth grade
Iola Blue 20, Uniontown 14.
Humboldt 13, Yates Center 8.
Iola Gold 34, Yates Center 0.