Lady Titans top Freeman in semis again

STERLING - For the second year in a row, Humboldt Table Rock Steinauer's Lady Titans had the Adams Freeman Lady Falcons' number in the semifinals of the Pioneer Conference volleyball tournament.

HTRS defeated Freeman, 26-24, 25-23, 25-13, in winner's bracket action Tuesday at Sterling.

With its win, HTRS advances to Friday's championship final and will take on Falls City Sacred Heart, a 25-21, 21-25, 25-17, 27-25 semi-final winner over Nebraska City Lourdes, at 7:45 p.m.

Freeman and Lourdes will meet in the consolation final at 6 p.m.

Both matches will be played at Sterling.

In loser's bracket action Tuesday, Lewiston defeated Stella-Southeast Consolidated, 25-15, 25-18, 25-19, at Sterling, while, at Adams, Sterling defeated Pawnee City, 25-13, 25-10, 25-17; Diller-Odell downed Omaha Brownell-Talbot, 14-25, 25-21, 25-20, 250-18; and Johnson-Brock defeated Sterling, 25-14, 27-25, 25-23.

HTRS coach Kara Engles believed the Lady Falcons would be “ready” to take on the Lady Titans, especially after losing to them last year.

“We knew they'd be ready to go against us because of last year,” Engles said. “We talked to our girls about being focused.”

Engles said she didn't want the Lady Titans to be worried about any “outside distractions” as they prepared for the conference semifinal.

Just because HTRS downed Freeman last year, Engles said, the Lady Titans couldn't take anything for granted this time around.

Last year, HTRS defeated Freeman in a five-set battle in the semifinals and went on to win its first-ever Pioneer Conference championship.

That semi-final win was the first-ever for an HTRS squad over a Freeman team. HTRS and Freeman played for the first time in 2002 and the Lady Falcons had owned a perfect record in the series until the 2006 conference tournament.

Tuesday night, the two teams battled in the first two sets.

“I thought both sides really did a nice job getting the ball to their hitters,” Engles said.

In the third set, the Lady Titans dominated play.

“We got going there and we couldn't do much wrong and Freeman couldn't do much right,” Engles said. “Sometimes once you get down, it's really hard to pull yourself back out.”

HTRS expected a tough five-set match against the Lady Flacons, Engles said.

“We thought it would be a battle and with the way the first two sets went, it was super close,” Engles said. “We were mentally ready to play a five-set match.”

The biggest key for HTRS in the match was getting the ball where it needed to be offensively, Engles said.

Engles said the Lady Titans, including setter Megan Schaardt, worked hard to get the ball to their middle hitters.

“Once we started getting the ball to our middles, our outsides opened up and they did a good job of putting the ball down, too,

Engles said.

Middle hitters Paige Schmid and Kali Schnacker led the Lady Titans in kills with 12 and 11, respectively.

Engles said she talked with Schmid and Schnacker both about being aggressive heading into the match.

“Freeman is so big and so athletic that we cannot tip on them,” Engles said. “We knew we had to be hitting, we had to be swinging and we had to be aggressive.”

Schaardt had 24 set assists in the match.

“Megan Schaardt did a great job tonight,” Engles said. “Freeman hitters were hitting really hard. Our passers were doing a good job of getting behind it, but Megan had to move around a lot.

“She did a nice job of getting to the ball and getting it to our hitters.”

Schnacker and Mari Ramsey shared the team lead in digs with 11 each, while Schnacker had two ace blocks.

Schmid finished the match with a team-high four ace serves.

Freeman coach Amy Ludwig said while the first two sets Tuesday were “close” against HTRS, the Lady Falcons “gave” them away at the end.

“We missed serves and weren't passing well at the end of either set,” Ludwig said.

The third set, which HTRS dominated, “just wasn't volleyball” on the part of the Lady Flacons, Ludwig said.

Ludwig said the Lady Falcons were having a tough time passing the ball, which cut down on their offensive opportunities at the net.

When things weren't going well for Freeman, Ludwig said she put some different personnel in the game to try and find “something” that would work.

Amanda Wusk was one of the players who came in and played to her “potential,” Ludwig said.

In a reserve role, Wusk finished 9-for-11 in hitting with three kills and was 9-for-10 in serving.

Freeman's attack was led by Schuster with 11 kills and Erin Dorn with eight.

“We can't depend on Kelsey (Schuster) and Erin (Dorn) to win games for us all the time,” Ludwig said.

Katie Schoen had 17 set assists.

Dorn led the Lady Falcons in ace serves with three and ace blocks with four.

Ludwig hopes the semi-final loss will motivate the Lady Falcons to play better at the end of the season, much like it did last year.

After losing a chance to win a conference tournament championship in 2006, Freeman went on to win subdistricts, districts and claim the D1 State championship.

“This girls need to realize they're not going to be handed a trip to state,” Ludwig said. “They'll have to fight to go to state. Nothing will be easy.”

Ludwig said Tuesday night's loss should be a reminder of that for the Freeman players.

HTRS' championship final match-up with Sacred Heart Friday will be a rematch of last year's conference finale.

The Lady Titans won that match in four sets and, like in their previous Freeman win in 2006, claimed the school's first-ever victory over the Lady Irish.

Last year's conference championship was the first for an HTRS volleyball squad since Humboldt and Table Rock-Steinauer first started co-oping sports in 1999.

HTRS vs. Freeman

Ace serves: HTRS (Paige Schmid four, Kayla Martin two, Kali Schnacker one, Mari Ramsey two, Taylor Schulze three). Freeman (Katie Schoen one, Erin Dorn three). Kills: HTRS (Schmid 12, Schnacker 11, Martin five, Logan Ballue four). Freeman (Schoen one, Shelby Mason one, Dorn eight, Amanda Wusk three, Kelsey Schuster 11, Kelsey Nelson five, Cassie Veerhusen two). Set assists: HTRS (Megan Schaardt 24, Schulze three). Freeman (Schoen 17, Dorn one, Nelson three, Veerhusen five, Kristen Andersen one). Ace blocks: HTRS (Schmid one, Schnacker two). Freeman (Schoen one, Dorn four, Nelson three, Veerhusen one). Digs: HTRS (Ramsey 11, Schnacker 11, Schaardt 13, Martin eight). Freeman (na).

FCSH 25 21 25 27

Lourdes 21 25 17 25

In the other championship semifinal Tuesday, fourth-seeded Sacred Heart knocked off top-seeded Lourdes.

The Lady Irish won the match, 25-21, 21-25, 25-17, 27-25.

Lewiston 25 25 25

Southeast 15 18 19

Lewiston's Lady Tigers clawed their way to a three-set win over Southeast Consolidated in loser's bracket play at Sterling.

The Lady Tigers won the match, 25-15, 25-18, 25-19.

“It was a nice win to go into subdistricts with,” Lewiston coach Scott Anderson said.

Serving was a key for Lewiston as the team finished with 25 ace serves.

Sydney Rees led the Lady Tigers at the service line with 14 aces.

Maggie Kramer led Lewiston's attack with eight kills, while Rees had seven.

Rees also had team highs in set assist with 14 and digs with 13.

Ashton Albers had a team-high two ace blocks.

Lewiston vs. Southeast

Ace serves: Lewiston (Sydney Rees 14, Jordan Thomas one, Brittany Thomas four, Olivia Dvorak two, Delaney Rees four). Kills: Lewiston (Sydney Rees seven, Jordan Thomas five, Brittany Thomas one, Ashton Albers four, Maggie Kramer eight, Tiffany Wiles one). Set assists: Lewiston (Sydney Rees 14, Dvorak one, Delaney Rees eight, Sarah Mitchell three). Ace blocks: Lewiston (Jordan Thomas one, Albers two, Kramer one, Mitchell one). Digs: Lewiston (Sydney Rees 13, Jordan Thomas 10, Brittany Thomas nine, Dvorak five, Delaney Rees four, Albers six, Kramer one, Mitchell one, Wiles one, Katy Sisco two).

Sterling 25 25 25

Pawnee 13 10 17

Sterling defeated Pawnee City, 25-13, 25-10, 25-17 in a loser's bracket game at Adams.

Diller-O 14 25 25 25

Brownell 25 21 20 18

Rallying from an 0-1 deficit, the Diller-Odell Lady Griffins defeated Brownell-Talbot in four sets in loser's bracket play at Adams

Diller-Odell won the match, 14-25, 25-21, 25-20, 25-18.

After losing the first set, Diller-Odell coach Theresa Knabe said the Lady Griffins got back into the match with a second-set win.

From there on, things got easier for the Lady Griffins, Knabe said.

“The Griffins played the last two games well both defensively and offensively,” Knabe said.

Theye led Diller-Odell in kills with 12, ace serves with four and ace blocks with three.

While Theye had the most kills, Knabe said Teri Ann Koch, Morgan Vitosh and Brianna Hajek all hit “consistently” throughout the match.

Amber Duntz topped the Lady Griffins in set assists with 16, while Katelin Bergmeier had a team-high 17 digs.

Knabe said Bergmeier did a “nice job” in the back row for Diller-Odell, completing more than 80 percent of her passes, picking up 75 percent of her digs and going perfect from the service line.

Heidi Krueger and Teri Ann Koch were also perfect in serving, Knabe said.

Diller-Odell vs. Brownell-Talbot

Ace serves: Diller-Odell (Amber Duntz one, Heidi Krueger two, Hillary Kostal two, Jamie Theye four, Teri Ann Koch two). Kills: Diller-Odell (Morgan Vitosh six, Vanessa McMurray three, Brianna Hajek two, Jenna Koch three, Theye 12, Teri Ann Koch eight). Set assists: Diller-Odell (Duntz 16, Kostal eight, Theye one). Ace blocks: Diller-Odell (McMurray one, Hajek two, Theye three). Digs: Diller-Odell (Duntz five, Krueger two, Kostal five, Vitosh four, McMurray five, Jenna Koch one, Theye four, Janelle Rickstrew one, Katelin Bergmeier 17, Teri Ann Koch seven).

Johnson-B 25 27 25

Sterling 14 25 23

Playing in their second loser's bracket contest of the night, Sterling dropped a three-set match to Johnson-Brock at Adams.

Johnson-Brock claimed the contest, 25-14, 257-25, 25-23.