VOLLEYBALL: Wolverines resilient despite sweep to Atlantic

The Nodaway Valley/OM Wolverines were able to stabilize themselves after a long Atlantic scoring run in the second set, but the Trojans were still able to come away with a sweep on the road on the opening night of the volleyball season.

Atlantic won on set scores of 25-19, 25-16, 25-15, but the Wolverines left the match knowing what aspects of the game they could work on.

“Either way you look at it, Atlantic’s a bigger program, and I told them that if you can play with Atlantic you can play with a lot of other teams you’re going to play this year,” NV/OM head coach Allie Kiburz said. “I think this is a good first game. I like starting off with a bigger school because you see the caliber of where you want to be and where you want to go from here.”

The Wolverines used scrappy play at the net and in the back row to help them get an early lead in the first set. Atlantic took its first lead at 11-10, but the Wolverines utilized good blocking, which helped them stay within arm’s reach despite a first-set loss.

In the second set, the Trojans settled in and showcased the ability of freshman outside hitter Reese Harlan, who peppered NV/OM’s defense on numerous occasions with her kills, though no Atlantic statistics were available as of press time. Atlantic went on a 10-0 scoring run in the second frame, which helped them to their win.

Early kills by Kylie Nelson and Emma Boswell in the third set helped the Wolverines stay in the match before Atlantic finished on a 9-2 spurt.

Wolverine junior setter Adelaide Livingston was out at the last minute due to a minor injury, so the team played with sophomore Mattie Thompson handling setting duties alone. She finished with 12 assists for an offense that hit .130, led by seven kills from Emma Boswell and four from Kylie Nelson.

The Wolverines served at an 87.9% clip with senior Izzy Eisbach scoring the only ace.

Leading blocking for NV/OM was Nelson with a solo block and an assist from sophomore Taylor Laughery.

Eisbach and junior Allie Cornelison finished with four digs each while senior Mallory Russell, junior Addi Herr, Thompson and Laughery totaled three apiece.

After they played in Saturday’s Colfax-Mingo tournament, the Wolverines were gearing up for a triangular in Griswold Tuesday with the host Tigers and AHSTW, as well as a quadrangular Thursday at Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center.

“Tonight I thought we played really well communicating. We had some things thrown at us last minute that they were able to adjust to,” Kiburz said. “They could have easily broken down mentally, but they were very resilient throughout the whole thing. That was something I was impressed with and proud of them for tonight. They rose to the occasion and were talking to each other the entire time.”