The Iola and Humboldt High School varsity volleyball teams opened up their season at the Wellsville Preseason Invitational this past weekend.
Iola
The Mustangs had a shaky start to the season and won only one out of four of their matchups. The three losses came against Baldwin, Humboldt and Wellsville.
“There were a lot of good things that happened throughout the day. This preseason tournament allowed us to get our first look at our strengths and things we need to improve on,” said IHS head coach Amanda Holman.
The opening sets for Iola came against No. 3 Baldwin in which the Mustangs lost a pair of sets, 25-8 and 25-10.
In a tough matchup with No. 3 in the state Baldwin, Mustangs Alanda Mader and Reese Curry led with two kills apiece while Jackie Fager finished with two aces and a kill.
The next round of sets pitted Iola with their close rival, the Humboldt Lady Cubs. The Mustangs dropped the two sets with scores of 25-21 and 25-19. Fager finished the matchup with five kills while Curry recorded four.
Other standouts in the Humboldt matchup included Rio Lohman making five blocks, Aysha Houk leading the way with 10 digs, Kaysin Crusinbery notching 10 assists as well as Jadyn Kaufman going four-for-four on digs.
The Mustangs then dropped a close pair of sets to Wellsville, 26-24 and 25-23. Fager led the way with six kills while Mader registered five kills and Lohman had four kills in the pair of sets. Also, Crusinbery had 16 assists and four serves. Houk, Crusinbery, Mader and Elza Clift each went a perfect 100% on serves in the match.
The Mustangs finished their day with a victory, going 25-17 and 25-13. Curry and Lohman led the way with four kills each while Mader and Curry notched a couple of aces apiece in the win. Houk also went a perfect six-for-six on digs.
“We have the talent to win a lot of games this year. We just need to work on minimizing our errors, finishing tight games, and continue to improve our court communication,” Holman said.
Humboldt
The Humboldt Lady Cubs varsity team also competed at the invitation at Waverly High School. The Lady Cubs placed fifth place and went 2-2 overall in their matches.
The Lady Cubs began the day knocking off Prairie View in two sets, 25-23 and 25-14, before losing to No. 3 Baldwin in a couple sets, 25-19 and 25-4. Humboldt head coach Terry Meadows then led his team to victory against Iola, 25-21 and 25-19.
The Lady Cubs put up a good fight in their loss to Wellsville, 27-25 and 25-19. The first game went into sudden death overtime when the score was tied 25-25, before Wellsville pulled away with a winning kill.