No. 3 Defenders rally past PCM
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| PCM senior Jordan Wood gets under a serve during Tuesday's match with Grandview Park Baptist. The Mustangs fell 23-25, 25-13, 25-17, 25-11 to the third-ranked Defenders. (Ben Frotscher/Daily News) |
MONROE — For a game and a half, PCM’s volleyball team looked poised to knock off the Class 1A No. 3-ranked team from Grandview Park Baptist.
Then it all fell apart.
Behind 16 kills from senior Amanda Bell, Grandview Park Baptist stayed unbeaten in the Heart of Iowa Conference with a 23-25, 25-13, 25-17, 25-11 victory over PCM on Tuesday night.
“Our serve receive just fell apart,” PCM coach Mike Vittetoe said. “We won a good game one and going into game two, we were outplaying them. We had a nice lead there, and they just went on some runs.”
The Mustangs fell behind 8-4 in game one but started to chip away. A kill by sophomore Alex Samson got PCM within one and so did a kill by senior Stephanie Hayden, but it wasn’t until an ace by senior Erica Neideigh that actually leveled the game at 13.
PCM went ahead for the first time in the game at 18-17 on a net violation and stayed ahead for good on an out serve at 23-22. A Neideigh kill won game one for PCM at 25-23.
“I thought we came out with more energy,” Vittetoe said. “I thought the bench did a nice job. We talked about staying in the game and we did that.”
PCM rode momentum into game two and built a 7-2 lead off a freeball kill by senior Jordan Wood. The lead extended to 10-3 after an ace by senior Katie Walker, but that’s where it started to go downhill.
The Mustangs led 13-11 after a Hayden push, but after a net kill, Grandview Park Baptist got 13 straight service points from Meredith Baker to roll to the 25-13 win.
“We haven’t been giving up long runs like that all season, and that’s concerning,” Vittetoe said. “That’s not indicative of this team.”
PCM got off to another quick start in game three as a push by junior Molly Adams made it 7-4 and another push by Hayden made it 9-6, but the Defenders rolled off five straight service points from Baker to build an 11-9 lead.
Grandview Park Baptist didn’t look back and won game three by a 25-17 score.
The Defenders used that momentum and built a quick lead in game four when a freeball kill by Kailee Hoeness made it 7-2. PCM got within 10-9, but Grandview Park Baptist scored seven straight points to pull ahead for good and the 25-11 win.
“We just started taking turns making mistakes,” Vittetoe said. “It was a lot on passing. We just compounded the mistakes. Someone needs to step up in that situation.”
PCM (2-6, 0-3 HOIC) is back in action Thursday at Nevada in a triangular with North Polk. Nevada is ranked No. 15 in Class 3A.
“This is a tough stretch for us,” Vittetoe said. “We have to stay up and stay positive. We’re not losing to bad teams. We’re playing the top half of the conference all in a row. We just have to hang in there. Our goal is to get better and at the end of the year, we’re beating these kinds of teams.”
GVPB 3,
PCM 1
Serving (aces) — Jordan Wood 13-13, Stephanie Hayden 9-12 (1), Molly Adams 9-11, Erica Neideigh 8-11 (1). Team: 52-64 (3).
Attacks (kills) — Wood 6-9 (6), Neideigh 19-23 (5), Alex Samson 11-14 (5), Hayden 15-18 (3), Katie Walker 9-11 (3). Team: 62-77 (23).
Blocks (solo-assists) — Neideigh 0-3, Samson 0-2, Wood 0-1. Team: 0-6.
Setting assists — Adams 16. Team: 18.
Digs — Wood 4, Hayden 3. Team: 13.
