Falcons homestand
Continued from page 10
selves back within two points, but the Dons slowly grew their lead out to six points over midgame. The two squads traded points in the final moments of the contest, which worked in favor of the leading Columbus team, which won the set 25-19.
The Falcons took an early 3-0 lead in the fourth set, getting another ace from Sperl to supplement their early offense. The visitors quickly recovered, however and retook the lead after winning the 6-6 rally. The two teams went back and forth, but a 4-0 run for the Dons gave them a 14-9 advantage. The Falcons managed to cut that lead back down to two after scoring three straight points, a run capped off by a Podevels block, but the Dons dominated the end game, outscoring Abbotsford 11-3 over the final rallies.
Schindler led the team with 10 kills in the loss, followed by five from Harris and four courtesy of Reece Nelson. Sperl had five aces and Neveah Treankler added another three.
On defense, Hammock had two blocks and Caylee Clement led the team with 16 digs. Sperl and Podevels picked up 12 digs each.
Athens, 3-1
The Falcons racked up 43 kills en route to their second Marawood-North victory over Athens last Tuesday, Abbotsford’s offense running smoothly through middle hitters Marilyn Hammock and Lauryn Harris, both of whom ended the match with hitting percentages over .350. After Abbotsford claimed the first set 2519, the Bluejays bounced back to claim the second set 25-16. The tiebreaker was the closest contest of the evening, but the Falcons came out on top, securing a 25-20 win and taking a 2-1 advantage. The fourth set was all Abbotsford and the home team finished off Athens 25-13 in the final.
Three Falcons ended the game with double digit kills on Tuesday. Hammock led the team with 13 kills on a .522 hitting percentage, only suffering an error on one of her 23 attempts. Celia Schindler added another 11 kills from the outside and Lauryn Harris had 10 kills and two hitting errors on 21 attempts, resulting in a .381 hitting percentage.
Abbotsford also found some success from the service area, dealing up eight aces over the course of the match. Schindler and Faith Sperl were responsible for six themselves, recording three each, while Halie Vanluven and Caylee Clement added one each.
Defensively, Hammock had one solo block and Schindler and Harris combined for another. Riley Podevels led the team with 20 digs and Schindler and Clement both had 14 each as the team dug out 74 hits from the Bluejays.
“Once conference play begins, you can throw the records out the window,” head coach John Kreeger stated. “We complete in one of the best small school conferences in the state, and the matches are tough every night. We are starting to come together on the court, and we are excited to see how competitive we can become.”
Abbotsford will be back in action when they travel to Tomahawk for a quad on Thursday, Sept. 26. They are scheduled to play Marathon at 5:15 p.m. and then Antigo at 6:30 p.m. in pool play before taking on a third squad at 8 p.m. depending on the results of the first two matches.
