Slow starts plague L-S volleyball in home loss to Montezuma

SULLY — The Lynnville-Sully volleyball team just couldn’t get the start it needed in any of the three sets against Montezuma on Monday.

The Hawks played right with the Bravettes the first two games but slow starts prevented them from gaining any kind of early momentum, and their rivals dispatched them 25-20, 25-23, 25-15 during South Iowa Cedar League action.

“We always start slow,” Lynnville-Sully head coach Heather James said. “We’re trying to get the first point. We seem to play from behind a lot in matches like these.

“We talk about it, but it’s a mental game. Once we get down by one it turns into two and then five.”

Montezuma improved to 18-8 against the Hawks since 2008. They’ve won five straight in the series, registered three consecutive sweeps and have taken down the Hawks in 17 of the last 18 matches.

Lynnville-Sully led 3-1 early in the opening set after an Ava Brummel kill. But a pair of 5-0 runs pushed Montezuma in front for good.

The Hawks trailed by eight five different times, but another Brummel kill, a back row kill from Tatum Huyser that clipped the top of the net and a kill from Brilynn Tice trimmed the margin to 17-13, 19-15 and 20-16.

Huyser produced two more kills that melted the Hawks’ deficit to three, but Montezuma pulled away late for the narrow win.

L-S lost by five and had four service errors. Montezuma’s 6-foot-1 middle hitter Sydnee Burgess scored four of the team’s first eight points in the set and finished with 10 kills and five blocks in the victory.

“She leads our conference in blocks,” James said about Burgess. “Sometimes we get scared and start pushing everything. But I want them to swing and hit it. We do a lot of block coverage in practice. If she blocks it, we need to trust that teammates will get there. When you’re playing someone tall like her, it’s hard to shut her down. We just have to be ready to dig it.”

Burgess headlined the Bravettes’ start in the second set. A kill and a block helped the visitors to a 5-0 lead and then back-to-back kills from Burgess made 7-1.

Montezuma (16-8, 5-0 in the SICL) used a 4-0 run to go from a 9-6 lead to a 13-6 advantage. The Hawks trailed by seven three times but got their margin to 20-15 after two kills from Huyser and one from Brummel.

The Bravettes recovered from the Hawks’ late run to go up 24-18. That’s when James inserted Addison Collum into the match to serve. She got the Hawks all the way back to 24-23 but eventually served into the net to give the visitors a 2-0 lead.

Lynnville-Sully (7-7, 3-3) dropped the second set by two and had six service errors.

“We had too many missed serves,” James said. “We pulled people from the bench because we were looking for players who can serve it in.

“I felt bad for (Collum) because she came in when they had 24 points. She got on herself for that one, but for me to tell her to go in in that spot, it was not on her. I’m proud of her. That’s a lot for a coach to ask.”

Another slow start in the final set plagued the Hawks. Montezuma built leads of 5-0, 10-4 and 15-5 before L-S got within 17-12 following kills by Brummel, Kate Harthoorn and Rhylee Rodgers.

The margin stayed at five until Montezuma used a 6-1 run to end it. An ace by Sara Bos closed out the sweep.

“We fell behind and were already down 0-2 so that didn’t help,” James said. “I can’t call timeouts to fire them up. They have to bring energy themselves. Montezuma’s entire bench was into the match and they were cheering like it was the World Cup. They were all fired up and excited.”

The Bravettes were 70-of-74 with only two aces, but their kill efficiency was .167. L-S missed 12 serves (43-of-55), finished with two aces and had a kill efficiency of .073.

“We practice serves every day,” James said. “We just go too fast. I think we need to take a few more breaths and relax.”

Harthoorn led the Hawks with 22 assists, three kills and 14 digs. Huyser added eight kills, two blocks and 15 digs, Brummel chipped in seven kills and 10 digs and Beyer totaled 16 digs.

Brooke Hardeman contributed 11 digs, Morgan Hay had eight digs, Tice tallied five kills and two blocks, Jaelynn Vander Wilt registered five digs and Penelope Robinson put down two kills. Brooke Harthoorn dished out two assists.

“I felt like we did good on our defense,” James said. “Olivia Beyer is our libero, and she works really hard and goes after everything.

“When you play a good team, you’ll make more mistakes. We need to make our serves, but if they have a good hit and score a point, it’s just them putting the ball in a good spot. We had too many errors, yes, but they also did some good things on the other side.”

Lily Ferry led the Bravettes with 10 kills and 15 digs and Chloe Snook finished with 21 assists and 14 digs. Lauryn Larmore totaled 25 digs and Ryanne Williams put down eight kills.