The Clarion-Goldfield-Dows volleyball team went 1-1 and Belmond-Klemme went 0-2 at Nashua-Plainfield triangular on Monday.
Nashua-Plainfield won the first match 2-0 (25-16, 25-18) over Belmond-Klemme. Each set was competitive to the midway point, but the Huskies were able to put together scoring runs to pull away late.
Clarion-Goldfield-Dows won the second match 2-0 (25-18, 25-18) over Belmond-Klemme. The first set featured five ties including a tie at 17. From that point the Cowgirls went on a 8-1 scoring run to claim the set. The second set also featured five ties including a tie at 11. The Cowgirls went on an 8-0 run to go up 19-11. The Broncos got back within six at 24-18, but the Cowgirls returned match point on the next exchange.
Nashua-Plainfield won the final match of the night 2-0 (25-19, 25-16) over Clarion-Goldfield-Dows. In the first set following a tie at 13, the Huskies went on a mini run to take a 17-13 lead. The Cowgirls tied things at 18. The Huskies went on a 7-1 run to secure the set. In the second set, the Huskies swung out to a 7-1 lead and never led by less than three for the remainder of the set. The Cowgirls got within a 15-12 deficit but drew no closer and the Huskies went on to win the match. CGD Head Coach Jessica Nail highlights the difference makers in each match.
“Playing our game, still attacking at the net and being aggressive. It was close there in the middle of both sets. We were able to finish playing strong and playing our game to get that win against Belmond,” says Nail. “They had a couple of strong hitters at the net. They were able to find some spots that we weren’t anticipating. One of the things we’ve talked about and worked on all season long is just that anticipation. Reading hitters so we can anticipate a little bit better. We were always kind of a step behind defensively. Hats off to Nashua. They were really scrappy on defense and getting some balls up. We just gotta work a little bit more on making sure we stay in our spot, don’t get sucked in, don’t cheat too much and being able to stay on our feet a little bit longer.”
B-K Head Coach Leigh Faaborg notes the necessity of limiting opponent runs.
“Tonight we saw that, where we just give them five, six, seven, sometimes eight in a row. That’s what we’re really trying hard to kind of minimize. What we’re seeing is that, we have times where we’re having multiple hitters make mistakes in a row, then following it up with a serve-receive error. Those mental mistakes it’s fundamentally, what do we do different to execute on that ball and not let them have so many in row. That would be huge for us. It is getting better. It’s just doing it consistently,” says Faaborg. “We like this point in the season, where we play a few of these triangulars that give us a chance to play several teams or a couple teams on one night. This week we have four matches total, which is nice for us to get to play a lot at this point in the season. They were definitely competitively matched with us. We just unfortunately didn’t walk away with two wins like we were hoping.”
Belmond-Klemme (2-17) will host Clear Lake in non-conference on Tuesday. Clarion-Goldfield-Dows (6-16) will travel to Algona in North Central Conference play on Thursday.
