Rally around the Superlarks: Lyle-Pacelli gets sweep
Published 10:35 pm Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Grand Meadow’s Allison Gehling, left, battles at the net with Lyle-Pacelli’s Sarah Holtz and Bethany Strouf during game two of their match Tuesday night in Lyle. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
LYLE — The Lyle-Pacelli volleyball team used a couple of big scoring rallies as it swept Grand Meadow by scores of 25-20, 25-14, 25-10 in Lyle Tuesday.
Grand Meadow’s Rachel Oehlke sets the ball forward during game one of their match against Lyle-Pacelli Tuesday night in Lyle. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
The Superlarks (6-13 overall, 2-6 SEC) held a 10-6 lead in the second game, but the Athletics (9-9 overall, 6-3 SEC) scored 13 of the next 14 points to take over. In the third game, LP rallied for 13 straight points to take a 17-3 lead.
“We want to increase the tempo and we want to play hard for every point,” LP head coach Lindsay Leif said. “Grand Meadow is a good team and when you’ve got a rally going, you want to go as long as you can.”
LP trailed 10-6 to start game one as well and it was a back-and-forth contest until the Athletics stepped up and scored 10 of the last 15 points of the game. Brooke Walter and a key kill to make it 19-15 and Madison Truckenmiller hammered down a kill seal the game.
“It was kind of hard for us to get started, but once we did we were good,” said LP setter Courtney Walter, who had 23 set assists and eight digs. “We don’t want to play down to our competition and we want to play our game all of the time.”
LP has now rattled off three straight conference wins and it will have to keep winning matches if it wants to play in the SEC title match like it did last season. Leif said her team has to learn to start faster.
Lyle-Pacelli’s Madison Truckenmiller spikes during game one of their match against Grand Meadow Tuesday night in Lyle. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com
“I think every time we play a conference team, we come out and really want to attack,” she said. “Sometimes we create our own errors and we have to settle down. Once we started eliminating our own errors, that brought the game back for us.”
LP stats: Sarah Holtz, 14 kills, 2 ace blocks; Bethany Strouf, 9 kills, 11 serve receives, 14 digs; Lucy Nelson, 5 kills; Madison Truckenmiller, 5 kills, 4 aces; Brooke Walter, 4 kills, 7 assists, 3 aces; Courtney Walter, 23 set assists; 4 aces, 8 digs; Faith King, 11 serve receives, 8 digs
