PCM volleyball loses marathon match against Trojans

MONROE — The PCM volleyball team couldn’t pull out its five-set match with West Marshall on Tuesday night.

But according to Mustang head coach Sarah De Vries, some of the best volleyball in quite some time was played by her squad.

PCM recovered from an early hole with back-to-back set wins, but the Trojans rallied for a 25-18, 26-28, 26-28, 25-18, 15-8 road win during Heart of Iowa Athletic Conference play.

“The girls fought hard. I’m so proud of them,” De Vries said.

PCM defeated West Marshall in a best-of-three match at the Trojans’ home tournament earlier this season.

The Mustangs’ visitors played much better the second time around though. It was much harder to get the ball down on the other side of the net on Tuesday and three West Marshall players finished with double-digit kills.

“They looked a lot sharper today. They are a very scrappy team,” De Vries said. “We had one too many missed serves and just had a few too many hitting errors.”

PCM (10-11 overall, 1-3 in the HOIAC) had 12 aces but missed 17 serves in the match. The Mustangs’ kill efficiency was just .049.

West Marshall began the opening set with a 3-1 lead. Kills by Reese Palm and Rebeca De Vries tied the set at 3-all. The game also was tied at 5, 7 and 8.

PCM went in front 11-8, but West Marshall rolled off six in a row and never trailed by less than three the rest of the way. The 6-0 run featured two aces by Lily Zahnd, who finished with 11 kills, six digs and three aces in the win.

The Mustangs evened the match with a narrow win in the second set and then went in front two games to one with the same exact score in the third set.

In Set 2, PCM jumped out to a 6-1 lead. A kill by Rebecca De Vries kept the home team in front 7-4 later and Palm’s kill made it 9-6.

After the hosts pushed the lead to 11-6, West Marshall (10-13, 1-3) rattled off six in a row to take its first lead of the frame.

The Trojans’ lead grew to 18-14, but PCM got kills from Rebecca De Vries and Elle Davis and an ace from Tori Lindsay to lower to the gap to 19-18.

Trailing 21-18, the Mustangs tied the set following kills by Davis and Rylie Muck and an ace by Lark Drake. Another kill by Davis evened the score at 22-all and Rebecca De Vries tied it at 24-all with another blast.

De Vries fought off a West Marshall set point with another kill, Davis put PCM back on top with a smash and De Vries won it with an ace.

Rebecca De Vries finished with a match-high 13 kills and added five digs, three assists and three aces. Her kill efficiency was .167.

The Mustang junior played in only three matches last season but is leading the squad with 123 kills this fall.

“She hit a lot of balls out of bounds her first two years,” Coach De Vries said. “She’s settled in to how tall she is, how she needs to jump at the net and how to swing down at the ball. She’s building a lot of confidence in herself, too, and that helps.”

The Mustangs battled from behind in the third set. West Marshall broke free from a few early ties to go in front 11-7. PCM was able to close the gap to one a handful of times before drawing even at 15- and 16-all.

West Marshall forced a Mustang timeout when it rolled off three straight points. A PCM service error improved its deficit to 23-18, but four straight points closed the gap to 23-22.

Rebecca De Vries got her squad in front at 25-24 with back-to-back aces and Lindsay’s consecutive aces a few points later moved the Mustangs in front in the match.

“I think we kept them back on their heels and did a good job of keeping them behind the 10-foot line,” Coach De Vries said. “We took two sets. The gym was amazing. The atmosphere was awesome. We just had a lot of fun playing them.”

West Marshall had little trouble in the fourth set. The Trojans led 4-1 and 10-3 and then went up 13-6 after three hitting errors by PCM.

The visitors returned the favor with three consecutive hitting misses and then a Drake ace closed the gap to 13-10. PCM never got closer than that the rest of the way though and a pair of kills by Bella Borgos helped the Trojans even the match at two sets apiece.

“Sometimes our hitters are on and sometimes they are off,” Coach De Vries said. “They were just a little off tonight. We struggled on the outside to find the open courts.”

The Mustangs never grabbed momentum in the final set. West Marshall led 3-1 and then one of PCM’s 17 missed serves made it 6-3 Trojans.

A kill by Zahnd doubled up the score at 8-4 and Avery Evertsen’s blast later made it 10-5. Palm’s kill cut the margin to 10-7, but that’s as close as the hosts got the rest of the way.

“There were just key points where we lost momentum either with a tough server or with getting killed on twice in a row,” Coach De Vries said. “Those kind of plays gave us a lull in momentum.

“You work so hard on side outs to get the serve back and then we miss the serve and lose momentum.”

Eliana Buswell registered a double-double with 30 assists, 12 digs and two aces and Lindsay added 15 digs, two assists, three kills and four aces for PCM.

Palm chipped in 10 digs and eight kills, Addison Steenhoek tallied 22 digs and Drake collected 14 digs and two aces. Davis put down eight kills and Muck posted four kills and two digs.

The Mustangs were 85-of-102 in serves with 12 aces. Lindsay served 20-of-20, Buswell was 19-of-20 and Drake was successful on 16-of-17.

Halie Hohnstein led West Marshall with 10 kills, 14 digs and two aces and Evertsen posted 12 kills and three blocks.