MIDDLE POINT — The Lady Lancers started the season strong on the volleyball court Tuesday night with a win over Van Wert in three sets.
“I’m very pleased with how we started and with how we finished this game,” said Lincolnview Head Coach JaNahn Evans. “These girls have been going strong and hard all summer and they’ve been ready to play since April.”
Scores for the match were 25-10, 25-16, and 25-18.
The first set was one of dominance by the Lady Lancers, putting their big front line on display with some hard hitting.
Lincolnview scored seven out of the game’s first eight points thanks to kills from Kendall Bollenbacher and MaKayla Blankemeyer.
“Kendall and MaKayla really controlled the offense the way they set us up with big plays,” said Evans of her two big hitters.
Bollenbacher led the team with 16 kills in the game, while Blankemeyer finished with four along with three blocks.
A fast start and consistent offensive attack led the home team to cap off the first set with a 25-10 final score.
Van Wert came alive late in the second set, offering some push-back to a game that started off about as well as the first set did for them.
After the Lady Lancers scored 20 out of the first 29 points, Van Wert used a few kills by junior middle-hitter Kayla Krites to score seven out of the last 12 points of the set, giving the Lady Cougars a little momentum headed into the third.
Kendall Klausing ended the second set at 25-16 with one of her five kills on the evening.
Lincolnview junior Madison Williams led off set three with a kill to break the scoreless tie, but that was where game stopped being so easy as the Lady Cougars fought back as to not go quietly to the home team.
Krites gave Van Wert the lead at 3-2, and from that point on, the game would become a seesaw battle all the way up until the late points.
The third sets saw five ties in the middle numbers at points 8,9,10, 11, and 12.
Lincolnview began to regain control, however, when a kill by Bollenbacher made the score 14-12 as the Lancers bevy of weapons proved to be too much on this night for Van Wert.
“They (Lincolnview) have the total package of weapons out on the court,” said Van Wert Head Coach Jeff Marbaugh. “We don’t have the mentality right now to make as many good plays when we’re behind and they took advantage.”
The Lady Lancers closed the third set on a 9-4 run, finished off by a Bollenbacher kill.
Bollenbacher, Williams, and Blankemeyer headlined a position group that earned the appropriate praise from their Head Coach following a 3-0 victory.
“Although I still think we need to go back and work on some key areas, overall I thought my big hitters showed up and that Bri (Brianna Ebel) did a phenomenal job digging the ball and getting it to those hitters,” said Evans.
Ebel led Lincolnview with 22 digs and 40 assists.
Lincolnview will put their 1-0 record on the line Saturday against Antwerp. Van Wert, who falls to 0-2 will play again on Thursday at Defiance.
Original article courtesy to the Times Bulletin