Volleyball: Spirited first set not enough to spring GC to victory against South Hamilton

Rams struggling as season gets underway

By BRANDON HURLEY

Sports Editor 

sports@beeherald.com

@BrandonJHurley

JEFFERSON  – 

Things turned sour quickly after what looked like a possible victory in the Greene County volleyball team’s home-opener Thursday, Sept. 8. 

Despite securing a 25-21 victory in the opening set against visiting South Hamilton, the Rams couldn’t maintain momentum and dropped the ensuing three sets for a 3-1 loss. 

The defeat pushed the Rams to 2-6 on the year. 

Senior Nadia Fisher and junior Megan Durbin kept the score tight throughout as each sent home nine kills on the night to lead the team. 

Durbin also kept several points alive, adding 15 digs to her performance. Senior Hannah Promes contributed 13 digs while Hannah Stein pitched in with 10 digs of her own. 

The Hawks found their footing in the second set building off several Greene County unforced errors, cruising to a 25-17 win followed by a 25-15 win in the third set. The Rams roared back in the fourth set after trailing by six most of the final game, eventually closing the deficit to two (21-19), but could not pull it out, falling 25-21. 

“We played well in the first game, but our errors hurt us in the second game and we couldn’t seem to gain any momentum back,” Greene County head coach Donna Carhill said. 

Despite the loss, the Ram service game was on-point for most of the night. Greene County was successful on 86 percent of their serves (79-for-82) including three aces. 

Senior Kenna Marquardt was a perfect 13-for-13 at the service line while Emily Heupel added a 16-for-17 performance to go with an ace. Promes rounded out the serving with a 10-for-11 night to go along with 30 assists. 

“The team worked hard and never gave up, but we came up short in the final game,” Carhill said. “We need to work on our serving in particular for our next matches.”

CMB PREVAILS IN FOUR SET HOIC MATCH OVER GC

Greene County couldn’t pull out a hard-fought Heart of Iowa matchup Tuesday, Sept. 13 as they fell 3-1 to Collins-Maxwell-Baxter in Maxwell. 

The Raiders took the opening set, 25-21 while the Rams answered with a 25-19 victory in the second frame to tie it one set-all. Greene County couldn’t carry that momentum into consecutive victories as they dropped a close third set, 25-22 before CMB closed out the match with a 25-17 victory in the fourth set. 

Nadia Fisher led the way at the service line with three aces to go with 19 of 22 successful serves. Emily Heupel went 17-of-18 on serves with one ace. 

Fisher was also the team-leader in digs with 20, followed by Heupel and Hannah Stein, who each added 14. Megan Durbin smashed a team-high 10 kills. Fisher and Stein added seven and six kills, respectively. 

Head coach Donna Carhill was encouraged by the effort her girls gave in the loss. 

“We were working with a revised defense for this match and are still refining it,” the coach said. “Even though we were down in the sets, we continually battled back, especially with our serving. I commend the team for staying in the match even when they were down.”

RAMS PICK UP TWO WINS AT SOUTH HARDIN TOURNEY 

Greene County was in action again Saturday, Sept. 10 as they traveled to Eldora for a tournament hosted by South Hardin. 

The Rams (4-9) picked up a pair of wins despite falling to the loser’s bracket in their five game stay Saturday. 

After losing 2-1 to South Hardin (21-13, 13-21 and 10-15), the girls defeated Oelwein in straight sets, 21-14 and 21-10. In their third match of pool play against Grandview Christian, they opened the game with a first set win (21-14), but dropped the next to sets (16-21 and 14-16) and fell to the consolation bracket. 

“We started the day with a great set win over South Hardin, but lost momentum in the match,” head coach Donna Carhill said.  “After a significant break, we soundly defeated Oelwein (the pool winner) and started our next match with a set win.  We just couldn’t minimize errors enough and lost to GVC in a close match.”

The Rams squeaked out a hard-fought battle with Gladbrook-Reinbeck that went three sets, as Greene County dropped the opening set 23-25 but came back to win a hotly-contested second frame (25-23) and dominated the tiebreaker, 15-4. 

In their final game of the day, a rematch with Grandview Christian, the Rams couldn’t find enough to overcome slim deficits in each match.  The Thunder were able to prevail in two close sets (25-21, 25-21). 

“We played well in our first round of consolation, but couldn’t seem to gain enough momentum to avenge our pool-play loss to GVC,” Carhill said. 

Greene County put forth another strong showing at the service line as Kenna Marquardt was a perfect 67 for 67 on serves including three aces in addition to Hannah Stein’s perfect tournament (36-for-36 and four aces). Emily Heupel rounded out the service game connecting on 49 successful serves out of 50 to go with three aces. 

Nadia Fisher led the team in total kills with 39 while Megan Durbin wasn’t far behind with 32. Durbin led the way defensively, digging out 42 shots in addition to 37 digs from Hannah Promes and 36 from Marquardt. Promes also contributed 108 assists in their five games. 

Carhill has seen progress as of late and hopes it translates into more wins in the near future. The girls have played much cleaner since the start of the season. 

“I felt that our defense and passing have improved and we’re working on minimizing errors, especially hitting and serving errors,” the coach said. 

 

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