This time, LSE holds off Spartans

 No comments  
 E-mail Story
 Print Story
  Share

 digg it!
 Facebook
 del.icio.us
Seed Newsvine
Fark It
Reddit

Text Size: 

Tools Sponsor

BY RON POWELL / Lincoln Journal Star

This time, there was no Lincoln East comeback.

Like it did a year ago, Lincoln Southeast won the first two sets in its volleyball match against the Spartans on Thursday. But instead of losing in five sets like they did in 2007, the Class A No. 8 Knights closed out seventh-ranked East 25-23, 30-28, 25-18 before an estimated 350 spectators at Prasch Activities Center.

“That’s what we talked about in the huddle after the second set, that we weren’t going to do what we did last year or last week,” said senior libero Paige Hubl, whose 15 digs paced a relentless Southeast defense. The Knights also won the first set in their pool-play match against East last Friday in the LPS Classic, only to see the Spartans rally to win 25-27, 25-22, 25-21.

[+]Enlarge

“We finished this time.”

Hubl’s acrobatic back-row defense and consistent serve receive were two components of a solid all-around match by the Knights (8-6). At the net, Haley Lake played a major role with a match-high 14 kills and six ace blocks.

Setter Alyssa Lake (33 assists), however, got everyone involved offensively. Six kills each from Casey Sorensen and Emily Goans and five kills by Logan Raymond kept the Spartans off-balance.

Alyssa Lake didn’t play in Southeast’s final two matches of the LPS Classic on Saturday because of a nagging back injury, but she showed few signs of the ailment Thursday.

“It all starts with passing and defense, and we’ve worked hard on those in practice,” Hubl said. “Alyssa is an amazing setter and all our hitters can do something with it. But first we have to get the ball to Alyssa and we did a good job of that tonight.”

Still, the first two sets could’ve gone either way. East (10-8) had an 11-5 lead in the first set before Southeast stormed back behind Haley Lake, who had six kills, two blocks and an ace serve in the set.

The second set turned into a cliffhanger, as scrappy defense by both sides produced long rallies at the end. 

“Winning that second set was huge,” Southeast coach Lindsay Coleman-Burkey said. “We had momentum going into the third set, but sometimes there can be a tendency to let up after winning a tight set like that. I was happy we stayed on our game all the way through.”

A 5-0 run gave Southeast a seemingly comfortable 16-9 lead in the third set. After East answered with five straight points to cut the deficit to two, Southeast reeled off another 5-0 sequence to go up 21-14.

Nicole Gingery and Ebke pounded 11 and nine kills, respectively, to pace the East offense. Gingery also served four aces.  Emily Swanson put up 16 assists in East’s 6-2 attack.

“We just didn’t win the points we needed at crucial times,’’ East coach Myron Oehlerking said. “Southeast’s defense kept some balls going that we expected to go down, and they (the Knights) played a very controlled game. Several times they kept it going long enough that we eventually made a mistake.”

Reach Ron Powell at 473-7437 or rpowell@journalstar.com.