ALBION — It’s rare when the Wolfpack lose both ends of a volleyball triangular.
That’s what happened Thursday night when first Battle Creek, then Boone Central swept the Elgin Public-Pope John Wolfpack in back-to-back matches.
Battle Creek came out ahead in a hard-fought first set, then went on to defeat the Wolfpack 27-25 and 25-21.
EPPJ led for much of the first set against the Bravettes. With EPPJ up 17 to 10, Battle Creek ripped off seven straight points to tie the score.
EPPJ fought back as Kayton Zwingman, Mady Kurpgeweit and Braelyn Martinsen ruled the net to take a 22 to 18 lead.
Battle Creek charged back to take a 23 to 22 lead. The Bravettes needed three set points to close out the set. A kill by Jael Lammers saved one set point, Zwingman saved the second. Then the Wolfpack were victimized by a net serve before the Bravettes closed out the set with an ace serve.
Losing the set seemed to deflate the Wolfpack as they fell behind early in Set #2 by a score of 12 to 4.
The Wolfpack made a 13 to five run to tie the score at 17-all. Much of their success was a result of the team’s ability to block. Lillian Moser joined Zwingman, Martinsen and Kurpgeweit with success at the net.
EPPJ and Battle Creek were tied at 19-all before the Bravettes closed out the match with a six-to-two run.
Zwingman led Wolfpack hitters with nine kills and four solo blocks, Martinsen had seven kills.
Camry Kittelson led the team in digs (10), sets (12) and serve receive (14).
Late match
Boone Central upended the Wolfpack in straight sets 25-19 and 25-18.
In Set #1, Boone Central jumped out to an 8 to 1 lead courtesy of back-to-back-to-back-to-back ace serves. After that EPPJ never got any closer than three points the rest of the set.
…see more at this week’s Elgin Review.
