Colby scrapes past Rockets, bounced by Thorp
Colby finished up their regular season by going 2-3 over their final five games. They defeated Spencer in their final Cloverbelt match and went 1-2 in a tournament in Edgar before falling to Thorp on Tuesday evening.
0-3
The Hornets hosted the Thorp Cardinals Tuesday night for their Cloverbelt crossover game. Thorp claimed the victory in straight sets, though the games were closer than the final line would suggest.
The first set saw Thorp climb to several large leads, but Colby would climb back into the game multiple times. The Hornets had brought it back within a point at 15-16 on a kill from Savana Thomsen. A long rally would ensue after, one that Thorp ultimately took. The Cardinals would not look back, winning the game 25-22.
The second set started similarly to the first, with Thorp taking an early advantage and Colby battling to bring the score even at 13-13 off another kill from Thomsen. They’d take the lead on a block the next play, but could not build that lead any larger than a point. Thorp went on a run not long after and retake the lead for good, winning 25-19.
It seemed that Colby might have a chance to take one off of Thorp and force a fourth game after tying the game at 24-24 in the third set, but Thorp held on to score two straight points and take the final game 26-24.
Thomsen and Daelyn Rieck led the Hornets with eight kills each. Harrison Schmitt and Lydia Decker both recorded six. Kylie Orth had one of her best performances of the season, leading the team with four blocks and recording four kills.
“She is making tremendous strides with her vertical and blocking,” head coach Wade Oehmichen said. “She got touches on almost every ball when she was in the front row tonight and she is becoming quite the exciting defensive player.”
Hayden Willner also returned to the lineup after missing a large chunk of time in the middle of the season. In her return, she matched Thomsen with a team-leading 21 digs, which contributed to the best defensive performances the team has given all season.
“I’m very proud of how the girls played tonight and with a good week of practice we should be the strongest we’ve been all season going into playoffs,” Oehmichen said.
Edgar Tournament
Colby beat the Bruce Red Raiders but lost to Rib Lake and Edgar on Saturday.
It was a dominate performance from the Hornets against Bruce, claiming the victory in straight sets, 25-14 and 25-9. There was little the Red Raiders could do on defense and Colby recorded 18 kills and nine aces over the two sets.
Thomsen led the team with eight kills on sixteen attempts, followed by Rieck’s four. Decker and Schmitt had three kills each. Jorja Weiland had three aces to lead the Hornets from the service line. Rieck, Schmitt and Tori Underwood each had two.
Rib Lake proved to be more of a challenge and defeated the Hornets 2-0. They took the first set by a score of 25-20 and the second set 25-21.
The Hornets actually had more kills than their opponents, but errors turned out to be their undoing. Colby had 13 hitting errors to Rib Lake’s 9, three blocking errors to zero, and allowed seven aces.
Thomsen once again led the Hornets with nine kills and 11 digs. Decker and Orth had four kills each and Rieck and Kennedy Bilz had six digs each.
Finally, Colby took on the Marawood-South conference champions in the Edgar Wildcats. The hosts were too much for the Hornets to handle and they fell in two sets, 25-18 and 25-16.
Edgar’s Reagan Borchardt and Emily Murkowski found similar success against the Hornets as the first time the two teams met in August. Meanwhile Colby only managed 13 kills a team over the two sets, highlighting both their struggles to set up their offense as well as some solid defensive play from Edgar.
Schmitt led the Hornets with five kills. Rieck had six digs and Hillary Feiten recorded five.
Spencer, 3-2
Colby ended its Cloverbelt conference schedule with a win, though it was anything but easy as their hosts, the Spencer Rockets, pushed the game to five sets.
The home team was searching for their second win of the season and nearly found it against Colby last Thursday. The Rockets took an early lead by winning the first set by a score of 25-18, but Colby managed to bring things even by winning a close second set by a score of 25-23. Spencer bounced back to win a nail-biter, 27-25 and was only one set away from claiming its second Cloverbelt match of the season. Colby slammed the door on those aspirations, however, winning the final two sets 25-18 and 15-8.
Thomsen and Rieck were the main sources of offense for the Hornets, with the former recording 14 kills and the latter coming in with 13 kills on a .500 hitting percentage. Both had two aces to lead the team as well.
Thomsen led the team on the defensive side as well, recording 19 digs. Hillary Feiten finished the evening with 14 herself and Jorja Weiland contributed 11.
With the win, Colby finished with a 4-3 record in the Cloverbelt conference.
