Fillies knock off HCHS volleyball team in three sets

 SHENANDOAH (Sept. 5) -- When the week began, Harlan Community was one of five Hawkeye Ten Conference volleyball teams ranked in the top 15 of Class 4A, 3A or 2-A by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union.
 Four of those teams, led by top-ranked (3A) Kuemper Catholic, were rated seventh or higher.
 It’s a list that may only grow as the season moves forward.
 On Tuesday night, the 14th-ranked (4A) Cyclones experienced the full depth of the conference landscape when they were knocked off in three tightly contested sets at Shenandoah, 23-25, 20-25, 24-26.
 HCHS led 15-13 in set two and 24-23 in set three but was unable to finish off a win and extend the match, falling to 6-2 overall and 1-1 in league play. The Fillies, who lost a pair of 2-1 matches vs. 6th-ranked (2-A) Sidney last Saturday, improved to 5-2 and 2-0, respectively.
 “I thought we came out fired up and played well. Give Shenandoah credit - they were ready to go and they were fired up, too,” said HCHS head coach Willie Baughman.
 “We were swinging from all over the court and they were picking a lot of our balls up... Overall I thought we played well. There were a lot of close points and a lot of long points that just didn’t go our way. That is volleyball. Sometimes you win those and win the tight matches and sometimes you lose them and lose a tight match. We lost by a score of 3-0 but we only lost by a total of nine points.”