Lynnville-Sully Hawks win Twin Cedars Invitational

BUSSEY — Having the opportunity to clean the taste of a loss on the same day is something every team wants — Lynnville-Sully High’s Hawks had that on Saturday.

The Hawks lost their second match of the Twin Cedars Invitational to Pleasantville, 21-12, 22-20. They had shaken off host Twin Cedars 21-8, 8-21, 15-7 to start the tournament.

Lynnville-Sully got past Colfax-Mingo High’s Tigerhawks 21-13, 21-17 to take second in the pool.

“We earned the opportunity to play Pleasantville in the championship match. The girls were fired up to take on Pleasantville again,” said Heather James, Hawk head coach. “I’m very pleased with how this team performed. They struggled earlier in the day but at the end were able to play their game.”

Their game came strong against Pleasantville in the tournament title match. The Hawks defeated the Trojans 21-15, 21-18. Serving was a big factor in the game. Cassie Cullen (8-of-8), Jade Van Rees (7-of-7), Shelby Davis (8-of-8) and Lyndsay Terpstra (5-of-5) provided the force at the service line. Cullen and Davis each had two ace serves, and Van Rees had one ace.

At the net, Cullen served up 10 kills, Davis had six kills, Van Rees and Macy Lanser each had two kills. Van Rees was credited with 15 set assists, and Lanser had three assists. Defensively, Cullen came up with nine digs, Terpstra had seven digs, Van Rees and Davis each had four digs.

In pool play:

Lynnville-Sully beat Twin Cedars with a strong first set, then had a tough second set as Twin Cedars picked up its game, according to James. The Hawks won the third set to claim the match. Van Rees had two ace serves, seven digs, 10 set assists, and one kill. Terpstra came up with 12 digs, while Cullen had 10 digs and eight kills. Lysandra James put down four kills, and Davis had two kills. Davis also served an ace, and had fiv edigs. Taylor Vander Leest had 11 digs.

“We struggled to return serves against one of Pleasantville’s servers in the pool match. We didn’t play well in the first set, but played better and fought hard in the second set,” James said. “They have a really good player that could hit anywhere on the court and dig up anything we would give her.”

In the first match with Pleasantville, Cullen downed nine kills, and came up with 10 digs for the Hawks. Van Rees was 6-of-6 serving with one ace, while Kristen Van Der Wilt was 9-of-9 at the service line. Terpstra had an ace serve. VanRees made seven digs, Vander Leest had nine digs, Terpstra had six digs, and Van Der Wilt had five digs. Van Rees was credited with 12 set assists. Van Der Wilt hit three kills.

Against Colfax-Mingo, Cullen was 13-of-13 serving with five aces. The Hawks did not miss many serves in the match. Van Rees put up 19 set assists. Vander Leest led the net attack for Lynnville-Sully with eight kills, followed by Davis and Cullen with six kills apiece. Davis was credited with 12 digs, followed by Cullen with nine digs and Vander Leest with six digs.