PCM volleyball sweeps home triangular, pushes No. 12 Roland-Story to five sets

MONROE — Taking down state-ranked teams is not something the PCM volleyball team does on a regular basis.

The Mustangs had 3A No. 12 Roland-Story on the ropes on Monday before the Lady Norse rallied to win the match in five sets.

PCM gained a bunch of confidence despite the loss though and used its momentum against 2A No. 14 Woodward-Granger three days later. And after falling to the Hawks in the opening set, the Mustangs rallied for a 17-21, 21-14, 15-8 victory during a home triangular that also featured Cardinal.

“We started slow tonight, but once we got that confidence back and played like we played on Monday, things got better,” PCM senior setter Tori Lindsay said. “We just needed to play our game and when we play as one, that’s when we play phenomenal.”

PCM opened its night with a 21-15, 21-16 win over Cardinal. The Mustangs led the opening set 19-9 and trailed the second set 13-11 before rallying for the sweep.

Lindsay led the Mustangs with 12 assists, five digs and three aces. Libby Winters posted seven kills and two aces, Peyton Lathrum totaled three kills and four digs and Addyson Pederson contributed four digs and two aces.

Jorja Teeter chipped in three kills and two digs and Addi Hudut collected five digs.

Winters had a kill efficiency of .538 and she made zero hitting errors in 13 attempts at the net.

The Mustangs (21-5) were 36-of-41 in serves with seven aces. They had a kill efficiency of .196. Lindsay was 15-of-16 in serves.

Cardinal (7-20) was led by Maelin Hickenbottom, who finished with three kills, five assists and three digs. Brayleigh Sparks posted six digs.

“When we go against teams we don’t think are going to challenge us, we don’t challenge ourselves,” PCM head volleyball coach Sarah De Vries said. “We knew W-G was going to be good so we ramped it up.”

After falling in the first set to the state-ranked Hawks (15-9), PCM jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the second set and extended it to 9-2 before cruising from there.

The Mustangs led 5-1, 8-3 and 10-4 in the third set before closing out a win against a ranked team.

Lindsay finished with 20 assists, six digs and six aces to lead the Mustangs, while Winters totaled seven kills, three blocks and four digs.

Pederson put down seven kills and tallied three digs, Teeter added three kills and three digs and Lathrum posted three kills and three blocks.

Hudnut registered six digs and DeVore finished with three digs. The Mustangs were 44-of-53 in serves with 10 aces, and they had a kill efficiency of .127. Lindsay served 18-of-19 and Pederson was 8-of-9.

“We work on serving every day,” Lindsay said. “That’s when I can dial into one thing and not worry about anything else. I have control of what’s going to happen with it. That’s my focus point.”

Pederson’s kill efficiency was .667. She had just one error in nine attempts, while Winters’ kill efficiency was .235.

PCM used a strong serve from Lindsay to close the gap in the first set against Woodward-Granger. That allowed the Mustangs to grab a little momentum, and it carried into the final two sets.

The aggressive serving also gave the Hawks trouble.

“We came from behind and got a little momentum at the end of the first game,” De Vries said. “We got into their heads on (Lindsay’s) serve. They were subbing players in and out during one of her serving runs.”

Woodward-Granger looked significantly different than the team PCM played during a camp in the offseason.

The Hawks’ roster features five sophomores who see significant varsity playing time. The top three kill producers are in that class, too.

“I was kind of shocked because we played them last year and they were scrappy but very short,” De Vries said. “They are a very strong team. We knew we had to turn it up and flip that switch.

“We didn’t play scared today. We know they are going to have a big block. But you can’t be scared and timid. We swung hard, got some deflections off some of their blocks and pushed through some other blocks. They just have to go all in.”

Roland-Story 3, PCM 2

MONROE — Senior libero Addi Hudnut didn’t an expectation to win against 3A No. 12 Roland-Story on Monday.

Lindsay simply thought all the pressure was on the Lady Norse, and her squad just needed to play their game.

While the Mustangs couldn’t hold a lead and came up just short in the fifth and final set, nobody on the PCM bench walked away from the loss feeling down or sad.

In fact, the Mustangs gained valuable confidence and it carried over into their home triangular a few days later.

“In no world did we think we would win that match coming in,” Hudnut said. “But then we won the second game and kept winning, that gave us a ton of confidence. We ended up losing, but we didn’t walk away sad. We walked away with more confidence.”

Roland-Story opened the night with a fairly easy win but had to rally past PCM for a 25-20, 17-25, 29-31, 25-19, 15-13 win in Heart of Iowa Activities Conference action.

The hosts fell behind 3-0 in the final set but used a Pederson block and back-to-back aces by Lindsay to pull back even.

The set also was tied at 4, 5, 8, 12 and 13 before Roland-Story scored the final two points to seal the win.

The Mustangs (4-2 in the conference) led 5-4 before a service error gave the ball back to the Lady Norse. PCM missed four serves total in the final frame, including ones that gave the visitors leads of 11-9, 12-10 and 14-13.

“I want the girls to serve aggressively,” De Vries said. “We aren’t going for the ace every time, we’re serving to spots — long, short and to the seams. We’re trying to mix it up.

“In a game to 15, you just need to put the ball in. We shouldn’t be serving it out of bounds.”

PCM also fell behind in the opening set 3-1. Kills by Winters, Teeter and Pederson helped close the gap to one three different times, but Roland-Story scored four straight to go up 10-6.

PCM rallied to get within one multiple times before the Lady Norse rolled off another four straight to take control for good.

The only set the Mustangs didn’t fall behind in was the fourth. They trailed 3-1 again in the second set, but used a 7-0 run that included kills and blocks by Teeter and Winters to move in front.

Another Teeter block swelled the margin to 10-5, and the Mustangs’ lead grew to as many as eight before the Lady Norse melted their margin to four multiple times.

Roland-Story’s 3-0 run later closed its gap to 19-17, but PCM scored the next six to close out the set. That run featured two kills by Teeter and an ace by Hudnut.

“Going into that match, we knew we had nothing to lose,” Lindsay said. “The ranked team always has more to lose so we just figured we’d go out and play our hardest and see what happens.”

The marathon third set didn’t start well for PCM. Roland-Story led 4-1, but the Mustangs scored six straight to take a 7-4 lead. That stretch included two kills and a block by Lathrum.

PCM forced a Roland-Story timeout at 14-8 after a pair of aces from Hudnut. The Mustangs extended their advantage to seven three different times and then a tip kill by Lindsay pushed the lead to 18-10.

Lathrum put down two more kills later to keep the deficit at seven, and another timeout was called the Lady Norse after Winters pushed the ball to the back corner for a 23-15 lead.

But a 6-0 by R-S trimmed the margin to 23-21. PCM called a timeout during that stretch. The visitors eventually tied the set at 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29 before a service error and a Teeter kill after a hard serve by Hudnut closed out the game and gave PCM a lead in the match.

Roland-Story began its comeback in the fourth set despite falling behind 8-4.

Three straight aces by Hudnut — two of which clipped the net and found a hole — put the Mustangs in front by four, the Lady Norse closed to within 10-9 and 11-10 before another small run by PCM extended the margin to 14-11.

That forced a Roland-Story timeout, and the visitors responded with a 3-0 run that brought it back to even. There also were ties at 15 and 16 before a 5-0 by the Lady Norse put them in front for good.

“They were dumping and tipping a lot,” De Vries said about the Lady Norse’s comeback. “They’re a killing team. They have strong hitters, but we started blocking at the net, and then they shifted to more of surprising us with tips and dumps.

“We’re still a young team I feel like in some ways, and it’s just about learning how to pick up those tips and dumps. It can throw you off a little bit.”

It was Roland-Story’s 21st straight win over PCM. The Lady Norse (22-7, 7-0 in the HOIAC) are 21-3 against the Mustangs since 2007.

It was the first five-set match in the series since 2015 though.

“I told them this is what a winning team feels like,” De Vries said. “I feel like we haven’t had that in a while.

“The teams who have the tradition of winning can come back after losing a set because they have the mindset of ‘we’re winners, we don’t lose.’ We have to believe that about ourselves. We haven’t had that in the past. This showed the girls we have the ability to fight with those top teams.”

Lindsay finished with 33 assists, two kills, two blocks, five digs and four aces and she was 19-of-19 in serves in the loss.

Winters added 16 kills, three blocks and seven digs, Lathrum posted nine kills, three blocks and five digs and Teeter added seven kills, three blocks and nine digs.

Hudnut tallied 13 digs and six assists, Pederson put down five kills and had two digs, Ryan DeVore contributed four digs and Claire Van Wyk totaled two kills.

The Mustangs were 91-of-108 in serves with 12 aces. They had a kill efficiency of .179 and finished with 12 blocks.

“We don’t have a huge number of blocks mostly because we haven’t played many teams like this,” De Vries said. “

Miley Geise led Roland-Story with 42 assists, seven kills and three aces. Caitlyn Flattebo had 15 kills and three aces, Brooklyn Jondle contributed 13 kills and 15 digs and Maddi Lucas registered 13 kills and five blocks.

The Lady Norse were 95-of-111 in serves with 10 aces. They had a kill efficiency of .143.

“We went in pretty confident, tried to be us and we obviously gave it to them,” Lindsay said. “We came up a little short. They weren’t expecting that, even their coaches said as much. It gave us a lot of confidence.”

Mustangs open regionals on the road

Not even a 16-3 record could get PCM a home regional game this season.

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union released the pairings for all classes on Wednesday, and the Mustangs will open on the road against Williamsburg at 7 p.m. on Oct. 21 in Williamsburg.

“It was super disappointing. I think they earned the chance to play a regional game at home,” De Vries said. “They can go off strength of schedule, but I’m most bummed for the girls.

“Our goal is the same. We want to win that first-round matchup and go from there.”

The winner of that matchup gets 3A No. 12 Roland-Story in the semifinals at 7 p.m. on Oct. 23 in Story City.

The 3A Region 5 bracket also features top seed and No. 5 Humboldt.

The Mustangs’ toughest matches are unfortunately at the end of the season after the brackets are already released. However, sixth-seeded PCM defeated a South Tama County squad which No. 5 seed Iowa Falls-Alden (14-15) lost to twice.

“We were pretty upset about it, especially since we are playing Williamsburg again,” Lindsay said. “I’m not sure what’s up with the Union with us playing them, but it’d be nice to play someone new. There’s nothing we can do about it except playing our game and seeing what happens.”