Top-ranked Knights rally late, cap sweep of HCHS

 HARLAN (Sept. 12) -- Poised to become the first team all year to take a set from Kuemper Catholic, the Harlan Community volleyball team was unable to finish the job Tuesday night in a 3-0 loss to the top-ranked (3A) Knights.
 HCHS led 22-16 in the third set before Kuemper responded out of a timeout by scoring nine straight points to close the match and win 25-10, 25-17, 25-22.
 The Knights improved to 15-0 overall and 4-0 in the Hawkeye Ten Conference (34-0 in sets) while the Cyclones slipped to 6-3 overall and 1-2 in the H-10.
 HCHS head coach Willie Baughman said it would have been nice to grab some momentum with a set three win and see how the match might have played out.
 “They haven’t dropped a set all year, so you never know how they’re going to react to a little adversity,” he said. “We’d have liked to get that [set] and we probably could have. We just kind of got in a rotation that we couldn’t really get out of... We just couldn’t stick a pass.”
 Baughman added that he was proud of the way his squad improved as the night went on after being overwhelmed a bit in the opening set by Kuemper’s trio of 6-foot-1 and 6-2 hitters.

   Kuemper, which spiked 41 kills in 81 attacks and had an efficiency of .420, was led by Kalee Peter’s 16-for-16, 12-kill performance at the net. Aimee Adams added nine kills (.261) and Kara Peter had seven kills (.545).
 The Cyclones, meanwhile, had a kill efficiency of just .133, bogged down by a first set that featured eight kills to eight attack errors. That ratio improved to 10 kills and three errors in set three. Lexi Larsen led HCHS with nine kills and a .261 efficiency from her outside hitter position.