No. 15 BCLUW rallies back over AGWSR

ACKLEY – It was an emotional Senior Night for AGWSR’s Alyssa Hames.

Hames and her fellow seniors were missing her father, Brad, less than a month after he suddenly passed away while out for a walk.

And the Cougars, along with Hames, gave everything they had against the Class 1A No. 15-ranked BCLUW volleyball team, coming up short in five sets despite having the Comets at match point on three different occasions in sets three and four on Tuesday, Sept. 15.

“I know what my dad would say, he’d tell me, ‘keep going, suck it up. You’re not going to win anything by pouting,’” Alyssa Hames said. “So, I went out there and hit it hard and everybody was cheering. I started to cheer up. I know he’d be so happy. I have a lot of confidence knowing that he’s watching me.”

And he’d have plenty to be proud of as Hames was one of three Cougars with double-digit kills against the 9-4 Comets, led by Taylor Sperfslage’s 17 and Brynn Smith with 13 and Hames, 10.

MaKenna Kuper added six and Grace Finger three kills as both setters, Natalie Gerstein and Josie Winterberg, spread the ball around in the 25-14, 25-23, 25-27, 24-26, 13-15 loss.

“That’s awesome,” Hames said. “We have definitely improved a lot over my four years of playing varsity and it’s just awesome to see everybody out there hitting all of the time, getting kills all of the time. No matter what is going on, somebody is on and that’s really good for us as a team.”

Twice in the third set, AGWSR had its chances for a sweep, but a pair of errors put BCLUW right back into it, capping it off with a lift call on the Cougars.

Another match point chance in the fourth set was thwarted when Kuper’s serve attempt sailed too long to tie the game at 24 as Eden Wilson put down one of her match-high 20 kills and then an ace serve for Allison Engle forced the fifth and deciding set.

“In the third and the fourth set we had opportunities to take the match, but we didn’t, so now we have to continue to work on here,” AGWSR coach Jill Smith said. “It’s not like BCLUW is a slouch team. They are a great squad, so obviously to see us battle against a team like that is tremendous. We came out really ready to play and did a great job, now it’s learning how to maintain that throughout the match and control the highs and the lows.”

From there, the fifth was back-and-forth in spite of the fact the Comets led 7-4 to force an AGWSR timeout that ultimately started a rally that tied the decider at 10-apiece. The final game was tied at 11, 12 and 13 before a Lizzie Garber kill and an attack error by the Cougars ended it.

“I think it was an evenly matched game all around,” Hames said. “They are obviously rated, but I think we should be in there, too, the way we’ve been playing recently. As we keep seeing these tough teams, it just makes us so much better. I feel like maybe we need to limit the runs that they serve and we’re getting better at that every game on limiting the runs.”

Smith added, “I think for our team, we’re in the position where we are right on the cusp of turning the corner to being a different team and so we’re not quite there but we’re just really close and this was just a representation of that. We’re right there, but not quite there, yet.

“We still tend to get tight and it’s hard to play when you are tight.”

Before play began, the Cougars honored all six of their seniors, all of whom contributed to this close match.

“It has (been a rough year for the seniors),” coach Smith said. “We’ve had a lot of different things. I feel like our group of seniors is a tight-knit group. I think they support each other really well, they do a great job of being leaders for our program. And so, I thought all of them did some great things for us tonight, so that was really fun to see. Just a great group of kids in general.”

BCLUW 14-23-27-26-15

AGWSR 25-25-25-24-13

Kills– BCLUW (Eden Wilson 20, Lizzie Garber 15, Kenna Paxson 9, Allison Engel 8, Katie Hill 2); AGWSR (Taylor Sperfslage 17, Brynn Smith 13, Alyssa Hames 10, MaKenna Kuper 6, Grace Finger 3, Alayna Hunt). Blocks– BCLUW (Garber 3, Mallori Jones 2, Engle 2, Hill); AGWSR (Kuper 11, Hames 9, Smith 4, Finger 4, Josie Winterberg). Assists– BCLUW (Garber 21, Engel 20, Sydney Anderson 4, Emma Averill 4, Skye Tecklenburg 2, Wilson, Corinn Swanson); AGWSR (Natalie Gerstein 23, Winterberg 14, Haleigh Homeyer 5, Sperfslage). Digs– BCLUW (Garber 25, Averill 20, Engle 18, Tecklenburg 13, Anderson 11, Wilson 8, Paxson 3, Swanson); AGWSR (Smith 22, Homeyer 16, Sperfslage 16, Gerstein 13, Hunt 6, Hames 5, Kuper 4, Winterberg). Serving– BCLUW (Engle 20-20, 3 aces; Anderson 16-16, 2 aces; Garber 16-16, ace; Abby Busch 16-16; Averill 18-19, ace; Wilson 10-13, ace; Paxson 0-1); AGWSR (Sperfslage 21-21, 6 aces; Gerstein 26-27, 5 aces; Hunt 11-12; Kuper 16-18, ace; Smith 21-24, 3 aces; Homeyer 11-13).