L-S volleyball uses trio of runs to sweep Baxter

SULLY — The Lynnville-Sully volleyball team reached the regional championship match last season.

But for the first time since 2020, this year’s Hawks have begun the season 5-1.

And the successful start comes after most of last year’s starters graduated off the 17-13 squad.

“We have some great leaders in our upperclassmen and we really try to focus on working on what we can control on our side of the net,” Lynnville-Sully head volleyball coach Heather James said. “We need to focus on our serve receive, which will lead to better sets and better hits. This team has a lot of grit and we just say ‘reset’ and focus on the next point.”

The Hawks and Baxter played close early in all three sets, but the visitors used a trio of runs to grab momentum and swept the Bolts 25-14, 25-17, 25-16.

Baxter led 6-5, 9-4 and 9-5 in the three sets but L-S used runs of 13-0, 9-0 and 7-0 to rally.

“Our problem is serve receive,” Baxter head volleyball coach Jordynn Wesselink said. “We were not able to side out on serve receive and get the points when we needed them.”

The Bolts held leads of 2-1 and 3-2 early in the first set following kills by Kendall Brummel and Karlee Koehler.

L-S rallied to force ties at 4, 5 and 6. The 13-0 run put the Hawks in front 18-6 and the spurt featured a block and a kill by Tatum Huyser and a kill by Alaina Roberts.

Denver Sulzle stopped the bleeding, but L-S (5-1) extended its advantage to 20-8 following a kill by Jakeira Hay. The set ended after back-to-back service errors by each team.

“Big runs are huge. Once we gained momentum, it was a huge confidence booster for us,” said Roberts, who finished with eight assists, four digs and two aces in the win.

The Bolts (1-6) used a Caydence Sulzle ace to go in front 3-1 in the second set and then a kill by Brummel pushed the margin to 4-3.

Baxter scored three straight points — two kills from Adison Bonney and one kill from Brummel — to take a 9-4 advantage.

But that’s when L-S scored nine straight points to grab another game-deciding lead. The Hawks got a long service run from Kate Harthoorn, who had two aces during the 9-0 run.

“Kate did a great job getting her serves in, and the placement was a key factor from her on those runs,” James said.

Baxter got back within 16-11, but a net violation by the Bolts and an ace by Terriyah Carter pushed the lead back to 19-11. And Baxter never got closer than five the rest of the way.

The third set featured ties at 1, 2, 3 and 5 before back-to-back aces by Denver Sulzle put the Bolts in front 7-5. They pushed it to 9-5 eventually, but L-S used the 7-0 run to go in front 12-9. That spurt featured an ace by Huyser.

The Bolts managed to cut their margin to 13-12 following an L-S service error and an ace by Caydence Sulzle.

It was all Hawks from there though. L-S closed the set on a 12-4 run and that stretch featured three kills from Huyser, single kills by Harthoorn and Hay and an ace by Breah Lowry.

“I really want to see us not let the other team go on long runs,” Wesselink said. “We are trying to figure what we can do to help them, but we also kind of just want to see them execute on the court.”

Harthoorn finished with 10 digs, three assists, three aces and two kills. Huyser tallied seven kills, six digs and two blocks, Hay added five kills and nine digs and Carter registered four digs and two aces. Savanah Routier produced five digs, Lowry tallied two digs and Ava Brummel put down two kills.

The Hawks were 57-of-62 in serves with 10 aces. Harthoorn was perfect on her 24 serves, while Huyser was 11-of-11.

Statistics for Baxter were unavailable at press time.

Both teams are using a 6-2 formation this season. James is happy with how her team is handling it, while Wesselink said the girls are still figuring out where they are supposed to be.

“We are using practices to put the pieces together to make the perfect puzzle,” Roberts said. “We are all compatible with each other and learning to play well together.”

Wesselink said the Bolts are showing signs of positive play through strong serving, solid communication and playing well as a team. But they need to be more consistent.

“We’re still working on finding the right lineups and working with our setters to make sure everyone is in the right place,” Wesselink said. “They don’t have the varsity experience yet so hopefully we’ll get better as we play. We are still learning to understand them.”