BARTLEY — Playing on their homecourt Saturday afternoon, Southwest swept their way to a district championship and a berth in this week’s Girls State Volleyball Tournament.
Having posted 21 victories during the season, the Wolfpack (21-11) couldn’t slow down the Roughrider twins Kyra and Annika Nelms and lost the match 25-22, 25-22 and 25-19.
The nearly 6’ tall twins combined for all of their team’s 39 kills in the match to edge EPPJ.
“I think we battled,” Coach Jordynn Luettel said immediately after the match. She told The Elgin Review, “A lot of it was us beating ourselves. I think that we had a lot of just unforced errors, balls that went out, balls that went into the net, us hitting the net.”
How close were the Wolfpack to winning the match? Close enough that the Roughriders were snapping at each other towards the latter stages of the first two sets, fearing the Wolfpack’s balanced attack.
In Set #1, senior Camry Kittelson put together back-to-back aces to tie the score at 16-all. The teams then traded points before a net violation cut Southwest’s lead to 21 to 20. EPPJ then closed to within two, 24 to 22, before A. Nelms’ ace tip won the set.
Then, in Set #2, EPPJ got the upper hand. Freshman Jael Lammers had two kills, sandwiching an ace serve from Sophia Burke, for a 13 to 11 lead.
The lead went from one to two points before Elizabeth Moser pounded an ace serve for an 18 to 15 lead.
Southwest then scored the next three points to knot the score at 18-all, forcing a Wolfpack timeout.
The teams alternated points til the score was tied at 21-all. The closest EPPJ would get the remainder of the set was 22-23 on a kill by Kayton Zwingman. EPPj missed on two tips as Southwest claimed the second set.
EPPJ had a mountain to climb in the third set. In no five-set match during the season had EPPJ been down two sets to none.
Against Southwest, EPPJ fell behind by as many as nine points. Then the Wolfpack made one final run. EPPJ won seven of the next 10 points as Brooke Kinney, Mady Kurpgeweit and Braelyn Martinsen stepped up and made big plays. A kill by Kurpgeweit pulled EPPJ within four, 22 to 18. Southwest then scored three of the final four points to win the match.
….see more at this week’s Elgin Review.
