Mustangs lose to Roland-Story

MONROE — Prairie City-Monroe volleyball coach Krystal Ehn loved what she saw out of her Mustangs in the third set against Roland-Story on Thursday night.

Now Ehn hopes her squad can use what it did in that set and apply it to an entire match.

The Mustangs fell behind 2-0 to the Norse in their home opener and couldn’t recover during Roland-Story’s 25-22, 25-19, 17-25, 25-17 Heart of Iowa Conference victory.

“They gave their all. They fought hard,” Ehn said. “I am very pleased with that third game. It shows some very good potential for the rest of the season.”

Ehn said a change to the starting lineup may have played a factor in the team’s slow start. PCM trailed the Norse 15-6 in the opening set before closing to within 24-22 in the final moments.

“We had a different starting lineup than usual. That made a little bit of a difference, but we weren’t quite on fire at the start of the match,” Ehn said. “They need to be more ready when we start matches. They need to play hard and have the mindset that they are going to win and are going to score points.”

Sophomore Avery Stock helped the Mustangs get back into the first set with a pair of aces. Roland-Story senior Krista Mehl, a 6-foot-2 middle hitter, was tough to stop at the net. She came into the match with 31 kills but had 15 against the Mustangs on Thursday.

The Norse lead got to 21-13 at one point, but PCM rallied behind an ace and a kill by senior Katie Vande Wall, a kill by senior Tatum Nearmyer and a few errors by the Norse. Stock served up three straight aces with her team down 24-19 to close the gap, but R-S pulled out the first set by three.

The Mustangs’ play improved in the second set. Mehl gave R-S a 12-9 lead with back-to-back kills, and then the Norse (6-4 overall, 2-2 in the HOIC) scored four straight later in the set to go up 17-11. They finished off PCM with a kill by MaKayla Geise, who had 11 kills in the win.

“We just weren’t quite there tonight. The second set was better. They started to do what we have been working on in practice,” Ehn said. “It’s very tough to come back from a 2-0 deficit. We had to get re-focused, and I had to remind them to just execute what we practiced.”

The third set was by far the best of the night for PCM. A block by senior Kaylee Townsend made it 9-6, and then an ace by senior Kayla Jennings extended PCM’s lead to 12-7. Townsend finished with five kills and eight blocks in the match, while Jennings had three aces along with a team-high 23 assists.

Roland-Story closed to within 17-14, but PCM (4-14, 1-2) extended the lead with another kill by Vande Wall and a hitting error by the Norse. Vande Wall led the Mustangs with eight kills and seven digs.

Nearmyer finished with five kills on the night. She had back-to-back attack points to end the third set and extend the match.

“We did a much better job in the third set,” Ehn said. “Our blocking was really good tonight and it was exceptional in that set. We were on fire and determined to win that game.”

Communication was the main issue for the Mustangs in the fourth and final set. Jennings started the frame with consecutive aces, but Roland-Story got back-to-back aces from Taryn Johnston to put the Norse up 13-7. The Norse, who had 13 aces on the night, went on cruise control from there and closed out the match.

“We just couldn’t stop the other team’s serve enough,” Ehn said. “We were discouraged in the fourth set from the beginning. There wasn’t quite enough talking on the court. If there is anything that I want more from this team it’s talking. It’s a quiet group. They are very intense, very competitive and they want to win, but they are just quiet. We need them to talk more. The fourth set was tough. The communication just wasn’t there.​“

Sophomore Maddie Samson finished with six kills in the loss, while junior libero Olivia Lippman finished with six digs. The Mustangs as a team were good on just 77 percent of their serves. They came into the match with a serving percentage of .878.

PCM looks to get back on track when it hosts Greene County (4-10, 1-2) for a HOIC match at 7 p.m. Tuesday.