The Lennox High School volleyball team had a very busy week on the courts.
Tuesday, Sept. 17 pitted the Orioles against the Huskies of Elk Point-Jefferson in a tight match up. Lennox ended up losing at home in four sets.
“We knew it was going to be a close match and that every point was going to count. We just weren’t able to get the runs put together when we needed them. Lilly Meyer had a fantastic game in her defensive specialist position as libero, taking a lot of cross-court heat from EPJ’s hitters,” said LHS head coach Vanessa Gabel.
Meyer ended up with 18 digs for the match. Libby Kranz added an additional 18 digs and led the squad with 17 kills. Ella Grengs added 13 kills, 25 set assists and 3 aces. Mallorie Bittner led the squad in blocking with four solo blocks and a block assist.
Thursday night, Sept. 19 the Lady O’s hosted Parkston in another tight match and won 3-1.
“The DAK XII is the strongest conference in the state, so us having consistent tight conference matches is no surprise. Rylee Hedin had her breakout game against Parkston. She took charge in the outside hitter position and over and over again hit around the solid Parkston block putting away her shots,” said Gabel.
Hedin ended up with 15 kills for the team while Kranz added 16 kills and Addison Martz contributed 10. Defense was led by Meyer and Andie Peters both with 11 digs each. Setting was handled by Grengs and Hannah Adney with 30 and 23 set assists respectively. Three players, Grengs, Martz and Kranz all managed to put away three aces.
“Putting together a tough serving game really puts the team in a great position and puts opponents on their heals right away,” Gabel.
Saturday, Sept. 21 the varsity squad traveled to Bon Homme for a tournament.
Pool play consisted of three matches. The Lady O’s beat Parker 2-0, lost to Northwestern 0-2 and beat Kimball-White Lake 2-0. After the girls came out of their pool in second place, they were matched up against Bon Homme who came out of their pool in first.
Lennox beat Bon Homme easily, 2-0, which put the girls in the semi-final match against Elk Point-Jefferson. In a tight match, the Orioles lost 1-2 against the Huskies and finished the tournament in third place out of 16 teams.
For the tournament’s five matches (best of three sets) the team leaders’ totals were: Kranz with 33 kills, Hedin with 23 and Ryan Hanssen with 22. Setting was led by Adney with 57 set assists. Digs were led by Meyer with 39 and Kranz with 34. Service aces were topped by Meyer with seven and Kranz and Adney with six each. Martz led blocks with five and Hanssen followed with four.