Fillies go 1-2 in Iola High Invitational

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Sports

September 12, 2011 - 12:00 AM

Iola High’s Fillies finished work on their home court Saturday with a victory. Unfortunately, the Fillies went 1-2 in pool play and were denied a run at the championship of the 21st annual Iola High Invitational volleyball tournament.
“In our team meeting after we played Saturday, it was brought up that the girls feel better about how they are coming together as a team,” said Jodi Grover, Fillies’ head coach. “We once again showed in longer spurts what we are capable of but keeping the momentum going is key to pulling out the win.”
Iola High Invitational has a new champion.
As defending champions, the Pittsburg High Purple Dragons appeared to be on the verge of winning back-to-back titles. The Dragons got past Burlington High’s Wildcats 25-23 in the first set of the championship match.
The Wildcats battled the Dragons tooth-and-nail winning the next two sets and the championship trophy. Burlington won the match 23-25, 25-22, 25-22. Anderson County High’s Lady Bulldogs, who have 15 IHS Invitational titles, defeated Prairie View High’s Buffalos 25-17, 25-17 for third place.
Pittsburg defeated Anderson County 25-22, 25-18 in the semifinals, which was a rematch from last year’s championship match. Burlington moved to the title match with a 25-21, 25-14 win over Prairie View.
Burlington rolled past Pittsburg 25-16, 25-15 in pool play earlier in the day. Burlington beat Labette County 25-23, 25-15 and Cherryvale 25-12, 25-7 in other pool matches. Pittsburg beat Labette County 18-25, 25-17 25-16 and Cherryvale 25-10, 25-8. Labette County beat Cherryvale 25-17, 25-12.
The Fillies opened their pool play losing to Anderson County 25-19, 25-17, then went three sets against Prairie View. Prairie View won the match 25-23, 20-25, 25-21. Anderson County beat Prairie View 25-17, 25-12 as both teams moved into bracket play out of the pool.
Iola’s victory was a 25-17, 25-17 win over Caney Valley High’s Lady Bullpups. Caney Valley lost 25-6, 25-14 to Prairie View and 25-5, 25-9 to Anderson County.
The Fillies and Lady Bullpups went back-and-forth early in the first set. Iola was up 13-11 on a defensive kill by Kendra Taiclet. Tori Snavely served up three straight points but Caney came back. A block at the net by Taiclet put the Fillies up 17-16, then she went to the service line for a six-point run. Emma Sigg served up the winning point at 25-17.
Iola faced a 6-3 deficit in the second set. With Snavely serving, the Fillies took a 7-6 lead. The teams were tied at 8-8 when Taiclet took over at the service line.
Taiclet went on a nine-point run with serves that the Lady Bullpups could not return or made errors on. It started with a Riana Dolenz block at the net and ended with a Kyra Moore tip at the net.
Iola kept the lead the rest of the way. Snavely served up an ace to close the match, winning the set 25-17. In the match, Taiclet served for 16 points and Snavely had seven service points. Libby Shay had three points and Sigg had two. Moore and Dolenz each served for one point.
Against Prairie View in their second pool match, Iola led throughout the first set. The Buffalos forged a 21-21 tie but the net play of freshman Emery Driskel put Iola up 22-21 to get the serve. Dolenz served and Taiclet scored on a block and Iola was two points away.
Prairie View got the serve back at 23-22 and served the final three points to win 25-23.
The Fillies built a 9-3 lead in the second set on a four-point service run by Snavely. Iola was up 24-16 but Prairie View strung together four service points. Dolenz ended the set with a kill to even it at one set apiece.
Again, Iola got down early 5-2 then Taiclet blocked a Buffalo hit at the net and served three points. Prairie View regained the lead at 14-10 and Driskel came away with a play at the net to get the serve back for Iola. Shay had a three-point run at the service line.
A tip by Taiclet fell to the floor on Prairie View’s side to tie the set at 17-17. The Buffalos gained a 24-19 lead and Iola fought off match point with a Dolenz kill. Freshman Kyra Moore served and Driskel had the play at the net for a point. Unfortunately, Iola could not go on a run and Prairie View scored the final point, 25-21.
Shay and Snavely each served up eight points for Iola against Prairie View. Taiclet had seven points served and Dolenz served five points. Sigg had four service points and Moore had two service points.
For the day, Taiclet pounded down 18 kills and had five solo blocks and two assisted blocks. She also had 23 digs and seven ace serves.
Driskel delivered eight kills, two solo blocks and two assisted blocks while Dolenz had seven kills, five solo blocks and five digs.
Celeste Ambrose, who went out with an injury early against Prairie View, had one kill and two digs. Kelsey Adams had three kills.  Sigg had two kills and five digs.
Moore was credited with 25 set assists and Snavely had 15 assists. Moore had three kills and one solo block and Snavely had three ace serves.
Shay had one kill, one assisted block and three digs. Keli Lee made seven digs and was 92 percent in serve receive.
Iola (3-9)  has the whole week to work on problem areas to get ready for the Pittsburg High tournament Saturday.
“We are depending too much on our middle hitters. When we try to mix up the sets to outside, we are unable to produce kills for points,” Grover said.
“Serve receive was only a problem in small spurts but we keep working on consistency. Serving was good. It’s nice to put some ace serves in the books. Our setters are getting into a groove.”
Grover said she was pleased with the Fillies’ overall performance on Saturday.

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