Wolves struggle at home against Eagles

After opening the season with two strong wins, the IKM-Manning Wolves volleyball team was back in action Thursday against the 7-9 Underwood Eagles as they struggled to defeat them losing sets one, two, and four (25-17, 25-17, and 25-20).

“I thought they did a good job,” said Wolves Head Coach McKaylie Croghan. “We started off a little slow, so I think we could’ve picked that up a little bit. I think it was good for them to see with conference play where we can be this year. Underwood has always been really strong.”

The first point of the night came when Addisyn Bandow knocked the ball out of bounds giving the Eagles a 1-0. The Eagles took command of the set leading a majority of the night, finishing off set one with a 25-17 victory.

Set two began with Wolves Freshman Keagan Eischeid spiking the ball for a 1-0 Wolves lead. However, the Eagles once again took over. The final point of the set came when the ball was knocked into the backcourt and Wolves Junior Anna Stangl tried to save the ball and keep it in play, but it deflected out of bounds giving the Eagles another 25-17 win.

Even with an 0-2 deficit at that point, Croghan stayed positive and gave her team some words of encouragement.

“We made a lineup change, and that helped us throwing out something different,” she said.

In set three, the Wolves got off to a slow start, at one point trailing the Eagles 12-8. Croghan called a timeout, and when play resumed, the Wolves offense came alive taking leads of 19-18 and 23-20. The team showed strong defense at the net, as Junior Grace Carroll had three blocks and Sophomore Ella Langel had two.

“I think they do a good job getting a lot of touches,” Croghan said of the defense. “We’ve had a couple of net violations, so we need to work on controlling that part of it. But, overall they did a good job with the defense.”

The Wolves got the first point in set four when Carroll spiked a shot that deflected out of bounds, which lead to a 4-0 start. However, the Eagles turned the tables on the Wolves, and the final point of the game came when Senior Eagle Ruby Patomson spiked the ball giving them their eighth win the season, and handing the Wolves their first loss.

The Wolves return to action Tuesday at home at 7:30 p.m. against the 8-3 Treynor Cardinals, who are coming off three consecutive victories. The Cardinals are led by Zoey Zadalis with 120 assists, Nora Konz with 83 kills and nine serve aces, Channing Reed with seven blocks, and Shaylee Smith with 83 digs. Croghan thinks making adjustments when needed will be key during the Treynor match.

“I think we can rally hard with them,” she said.