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Pirates lose to Highland
The Prairie Lady Pirates couldn’t overcome losing their first two games as they fell to Highland 20-25, 18-25, 25-20 and 24-26 at Cottonwood Tuesday, Sept. 21. In the opening game Prairie took the early lead only to see Highland come back with a 4-point serving run to grab a 2-point lead. 
Although Prairie was able to tie the score at 16 they could never get back into the lead. Highland dominated the second game as they jumped out to a 0-4 lead and later got a 7-point serving run to totally take control although Prairie was able to rally back within 4 points at one time. In the third game it looked they were headed to a 3-game loss as Highland again took the lead early on and held it most of the game. Prairie was down 14-18 when they start to take over. A 2-point serving run by Bridget Enneking where Ashley Jackson and Vanessa Sonnen each scored a kill cut the lead in half. Then at 18-20, Jackson scored a kill to put Lauren Merrill at the service line. Merrill served out the game as Prairie dominated at the net. Jackson added 2 more kills while Briget Long and Natalie Arnzen each scored a kill as did Merrill from the back row as she dug a Highland spike. Merrill finished the game with an ace. Prairie carried that momentum into the third game and had a 5-point lead late only to see Highland rally to win it. The JV team lost their match, which was held at Grangeville, 21-25, 17-25. The C team played Grangeville and lost 19-25, 17-25, 9-15. The varsity also lost to Grangeville that night but we have no details available. Lady Pirates fall to Kendrick The Prairie Lady Pirates lost their fourth straight match when they lost to Kendrick 7-25, 27-25, 18-25, 13-25 at Cottonwood Thursday, Sept. 16. 
Two big serving runs by Kendrick were the story of the first game as the Tigers had a 6-point run early and a 7 point run later on that let them build a 4-18 lead. Prairie again fell behind early in the second game, 4-9, but then went into a holding pattern as they were able to keep the deficit at about 4 or 5 points. Kendrick built an 18-24 lead late but then couldn’t close the Pirates out. A missed serve put Briget Long at the service line. She started things with an ace and then Ashley Schaeffer scored two straight kills at the net spiking the ball down on first contact. After another ace by Long, Natalie Arnzen scored a kill to tie the game at 24. Kendrick scored a sideout to get to their seventh try at game point but another kill by Schaeffer tied the score at 25. With Bridget Enneking serving, Schaeffer stuffed a Kendrick spike to give Prairie their first game point opportunity and Sarah Forsmann scored the game-winning kill. For that 8-point stretch Prairie played some of the best volleyball of the season as the defense dug up serves and spikes and made good passes to the setters who then set up the kills.  Unfortunately
Prairie couldn’t sustain the momentum as they fell back into their inconsistent
ways of making a great play and then making mistakes that cost them points.
Prairie led only 1 time in the third game, at 1-0. The fourth game was a total disaster as Kendrick jumped out to a 0-10 lead and then held the Pirates off to win the match. Long had 11 kills including a stuff block and 3 aces in the game while Schaeffer had 10 kills including a pair of stuff blocks. Lauren Merrill had 5 kills and 2 aces while Vanessa Sonnen also had 5 kills. Arnzen had 4 kills and 1 ace. Lindsey Crea had 15 assists and 3 aces while Enneking had 10 assists and 1 ace. Ashley Jackson had 2 kills and 3 aces. With the loss Prairie drops to 3-6 in league play and 5-10 overall. The JV team meanwhile won their match 25-22, 13-25, 15-3. The opening game saw Prairie fall behind by as many as 7 points only to battle back. Randi Schumacher and Kylie Uhlorn each had 3 points serving runs that helped erase the deficit. In fact Uhlorn’s put Prairie into their first lead since very early in the game. An ace by Carolyn Sonnen gave Prairie a game point opportunity but Kendrick managed to sideout. Nicole Nida then scored the game winning kill on what was actually a bad set as Kendrick pushed it into the net trying to knock it back over. The second game was close until Kendrick put together a 7-point serving run that turned an 8-10 game into an 8-18 deficit. Nida got the deciding game off to a good start with a 4-0 serving run with 2 aces and a kill each by Schumacher and Sonnen. Sonnen added a pair of aces to make it 7-1. After the sideout Schumacher added 2 more aces along with a kill by Tessica Nuxoll that made it 11-2. After a trade of sideouts Tabitha Seubert served out the match with an ace and a kill from Nuxoll. A setting violation by Kendrick scored the final point. The C team also came up winners by scores of 25-15, 25-22 and 15-2 over Kendrick. |
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