HURON – Ipswich got exactly the start it wanted, but the Tigers were unable to sustain the momentum Tuesday night at the Huron Arena.
Parkston overcame an early deficit before it took control on the way to a 25-22, 25-16, 25-21 Class B SoDak 16 volleyball victory.
“Their middle hitter kind of took over there for a while and brought them back in it. We weren’t able to control the pace of the game,” said Ipswich coach Trent Osborne. “That was the whole idea, was get them out of system, we pound the ball, keep pounding the nail, and take control of where the ball’s going and force them to use somebody else, and we just couldn’t do it enough.”
The Tigers jumped out to a 16-9 advantage in the opening set, but Parkston gradually mounted a comeback and ended up scoring the final five points of the set to grab the momentum.
“Not a good feeling, but I’m just so proud of us that we got to that point. We came in here knowing that they are a good team,” said Ipswich Libero Brianna Geditz. “We were just going to play our butts off, and we did and we just lost it, but I’m so proud of every single one of us.”
Having that early lead and then losing it made it difficult for the Tigers to get back on track.
“We lost a lot of momentum right there,” said Ipswich senior Marley Guthmiller who lead the Tigers with 13 kills. “It made us think, like wow we have to keep going. We can’t just let down like we did. That’s our own fault.”
Meanwhile Parkston middle hitter Keeara Oakley found her groove and nothing Ipswich tried seemed to slow her down.
“We tried single blocking, we tried triple blocking, we tried double, we tried running people to different places,” Osborne said, “and she found holes in the defense.”
The fact that the Trojans were able rally from a deficit did not come as a surprise to Parkston coach Brooklynn Schauer.
“I knew they would do it. They’ve been doing it all year,” Schauer said. “I never had any doubts in them. That’s just what they do.”
In fact, Schauer did not even use a timeout to try to turn the momentum. She just let her players figure it out.
“I just trust them,” Schauer said. “When they huddle up between points, that’s kind of like a timeout for me and them, too.”
Ipswich received a spark off its bench in the form of Ava Davis. She came in and began pounding one solid serve after another at the Trojans.
“I just practice it a lot at practice and I really focus on my toss, Davis said.
The senior ran from one side of the baseline to the other, trying to figure out the best location to serve the ball.
“Just have to watch the blockers and where they go,” Davis said, “and make sure I’m sitting in the right spot based off the blockers.”
While the atmosphere featured plenty of loud cheering, Guthmiller said it was much different than the noise she experiences while competing at a state track and field meet.
“In here you can actually hear what people are saying,” Guthmiller said. “There it’s just screaming and loud noises.”
While the Tigers kept battling throughout the match, there were never able to regain their early-match momentum, eventually falling in straight sets.
Geditz talked about the challenge of slowing down the Parkston offense.
“Didn’t know where the ball was going. We knew what we had to do. It wasn’t just working,” Geditz said. “They were reading around our stuff, but we did what we were supposed to, it just didn’t work out.”
Osborne said this year’s team was a special group.
“This is the best group that I’ve had,” Osborne said. “It’s been enjoyable, 10 seniors with great leadership and they came to work every day. It’s always difficult when it’s the final one, but we battled to the end and that’s what we told people. We’re going to be relentless and go til the end. I just wish it worked out better for these seniors.”
Serving: Ipswich 50-59 6 aces (Natalie Crissman 5-9 2 aces, Ava Davis 8-9 2 aces); Parkston (Alexis Holzbauer 4 aces).
Hitting: Ipswich 148-161 33 kills (Marley Guthmiller 74-78 13 kills, Crissman 35-39 9 kills, Jalyssa Hutson 21-25 4 kills); Parkston (Keera Oakley 22 kills, Berkley Ziebart 9 kills).
Setting: Ipswich 124-124 27 assists (Josie Knutson 96-96 23 assists); Parkston (Finley Bogenreif 34 assists).
Digs: Ipswich 39 (Brianna Geditz 19, Knutson 7); Parkson (Ziebart 19, Addison Koehn 18, Oakley 17).
Blocks: Ipswich 2 solo 6 assists (Karlie Weisser 2 solo 3 assists, Guthmiller 2 assists); Parkston (Isabel Leischener 3).
Records: Ipswich 23-7; Parkston 30-6.
