Crestwood spikers nab third at Kepros, lose to No. 6 W-SR

CRESCO -  The Crestwood varsity volleyball team was unable to slow down Class 4A No. 6 Waverly-Shell Rock on Sept. 5 at home as the Go-Hawks downed the Cadets in three games, 25-16, 25-11 and 25-17.

Playing at the Kepros Invitational Saturday at home, the Cadets competed well as they placed third out of nine teams with four wins and two losses. 

In first and second round play, Crestwood rallied to beat Waukon, 2-1 (20-22, 21-9, 15-13); defeated Lisbon, 2-0 (21-17, 21-19); bounced Kee, 2-0 (21-14, 21-9); and downed Turkey Valley 2-0 (21-16, 21-13).

In the championship round, Waterloo West defeated Crestwood, 2-0 (21-13, 21-7); and New Hampton downed the Cadets, 2-0 (21-15, 21-15). New Hampton took first.

WSR 3, Cadets 0

The Go-Hawks proved why they are ranked No. 6 in Class 4A as they won, 3-0 (25-16, 25-11, 25-17).

Waverly-SR flexed its muscles at the net as it finished with 38 kills, including 11 each by Krissa Larson and Jayme Willemssen. The Go-Hawks also completed 68 of 74 serves, including 13 aces.

Game one started well for the Cadets as Shannon Pisney connected on three straight serves to give Crestwood an early 3-0 lead. Waverly-SR came back with a 7-2 run to go ahead, 7-5. Three serves by Kaylee Thomas gave Crestwood a 9-8 lead.

Waverly-SR scored seven of the next eight points to take a 14-10 lead before two serves by Maddie Steffen cut the lead to 14-13. Unfortunately, the Go-Hawks closed the game strong with an 11-3 run to win game one, 25-16.

In game two, Waverly-SR took a 3-0 lead before two serves by Emma Mannery tied the game at three. The Go-Hawks nabbed a 10-6 lead, but Crestwood came back to cut WSR’s lead to 13-10. However, W-SR closed the game on a 12-1 run to win.

In game three, the Go-Hawks grabbed an early 5-1 lead before Crestwood came back to slice WSR’s lead to 8-5. The Cadets continued to battle, but they were unable to cut the lead to under five points the rest of the game as WSR won, 25-17.

Emma Mannery led the Cadets with 10 assists, had four digs and completed nine of ten serves. Kayla Lentz tallied six digs, completed six of six serves. Audrey Grinhaug had two digs.

Shannon Pisney was nine of nine serving and had five kills. Sharon Goodman tallied six kills and two solo blocks. Maddie Steffen had six digs, completed four of four serves and had one ace. 

Kaylee Thomas was eight of nine serving and had two digs. Taylar Pecinovsky and Amiah DeWolf each had one assist and one dig. Ashley Voves was two of two serving. Brooklyn Ferrie and Danielle Ahern each had one kill.

As a team, Crestwood completed 42 of 44 serves, had two aces, 13 kills, 24 digs and 12 assists.

 

Kepros Invite

Crestwood Head Volleyball Coach Robin Gossman was happy with the way the Cadets competed hard and placed third overall at Saturday’s tournament.

“Overall I am pleased at the way we played,” Gossman noted. “We finally got our first taste of victory and that helped a lot. We now know that we can win, and hopefully that continues. Our play during the first four matches was what I was looking for. We played with a lot of emotion and that is what it takes to win matches.

“The girls are slowly learning that emotion is a key. This game is a game of runs. If you keep the other team’s runs small, it is a much easier game to play. I was happy with our defense. Defense creates offense, and without defense, you have no offense,” the coach said.