David Penner
C-H editor
SUMNER – The SEM Mustangs volleyball team could not keep its momentum going against the Elwood Pirates after a huge victory against the Wilcox-Heldreth Lady Falcons.
Thursday night’s volleyball triangular was an emotional rollercoaster for the Mustangs.
The Mustangs drew the Lady Falcons in the first game of the triangular and played the first set down to the wire, just edging the Lady Falcons, 25-23.
In the second set they were beat after a lackluster performance, 25-15.
Then the third set started.
“All season long we have been stressing communication,” SEM senior Sara Simmons said. “In the second set we just stopped communicating.”
Before the Mustangs knew what hit them the Lady Falcons had already amassed a double-digit lead in the third set. After timeout from SEM head coach Misty Freeman things turned around quick.
“I think we started out mentally down on ourselves,” Freeman said. “I told them to pick up their communication and they started playing better.”
Simmons and fellow senior Megan Berg, who after being taken out provided a huge spark when she came back into the game, led the surge.
“Sara and Megan have been playing the front line together since their sophomore year,” Freeman said. “The whole team feeds off of them.”
Freeman said she took Berg out of the game because she gets frustrated playing on the back line and she wanted to her a breather to calm down and focus.
It worked.
After Berg re-entered the game, SEM tied the game at 15, went ahead on a kill from Simmons and never looked back.
The Mustangs rattled off 10 points during the final stretch, while the Lady Falcons could only muster two.
The exclamation point was a perfectly placed Simmons kill.
“I was thinking we can’t stop,” Simmons said.
“[Freshman Rachel Ibach] gave me the perfect set,” Simmons said of the final play. “It felt so good.”
After that it was Elwood’s triangular to win.
The Pirates dispatched of the Lady Falcons dropping the first set, 25-22, then taking the second and third set, 25-20 and 25-21.
“You don’t often miss 15 serves and win, but we’ll take it,” Elwood head coach Codina Schutz said. “It was a good win and one we hope got their nerves out of the way.”
Nerves were not a problem by the time the Pirates matched up against the Mustangs
The Pirates swept the Mustangs, 25-16 and 25-17.
“Much more solid performance from everyone,” Schutz said.

• Elwood Pirates

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