Clear Lake volleyball comes up short in tough week

(Above) Clear Lake’s Delaney Eden gets a solid hit against a Charles City blocker in Thursday night’s triangular.  -Reporter photo by Chris Barragy

Coach Richie Ellis says it felt like deja vu all over again last week.  The Lions (4-6) traveled to Webster City Thursday, then hosted a triangular with Mason City and Charles City Thursday.  Both nights the Lions came up short.

Webster City 3, CL 0

The Lions played point for point with the Lynx most of the night, but unfortunately came up on the short end of a 3-0 score.  Webster City took the first game, 25-22.  The scores for the second and third were 25-20 and 25-18.

“The girls played with heart and enthusiasm all night, but we are still playing a little too timid at times,” said Coach Ellis.

Chelsey Holck had a strong game.  The junior put down a team-high eight kills, had seven digs, a block assist and went 15/16 at the service line.

Delaney Eden, Sara Faber and Kaitlyn Vanderploeg each had five kills.  Eden was 8/9 serving, while Faber and Vanderploeg each went 8/8.   Eden and Vanderploeg each had two block assist.  The team was led in that statistical category by Allexa Whitehouse with three.

Julia Merfeld set up the offense with 25 assists and seven digs.  The senior was also perfect from the service line, going 14/14 with two aces.

Charles City 2, CL 1

Mason City 2, CL 1

On Thursday, the Lions hosted their annual triangular with Charles City and Mason City. The team started out the night a little slow against Charles City, but came back and won set two to take it to a deciding third set.  The Lions dropped set three for a disappointing loss, 22-25, 25-21, 9-15.

Chelsey Holck and Kaitlyn Vanderploeg led the team with seven kills apiece.  Delaney Eden had the teams’ only block.  Julia Merfeld was credited with 19 assists.  Sophie Ollenburg made nine digs.

The team lacked their usual consistency serving, finishing at 89 percent in the match.  Merfeld was the only player to put all her attempts in, going 12/12.  Sara Faber was 11/12 serving with three aces.

“Then we faced Mason City— it was kinda like deja vu,” said Ellis.  “We dropped set one (20-25), won set two (25-23) and lost set three (10-15).”

Again, serving was a struggle. The team served at 80 percent.  Leaders were Delaney Eden (8/9), Sara Faber (12/14), Chelsey Holck (8/10) and Julia Merfeld (10/11).

Merfeld topped the team in assists with 22.  Sophie Ollenbug led in digs with 18.

“I feel the girls’ effort was there all night,” said the coach.  “There were times when we were too timid or afraid to make a mistake and backed off being aggressive, which led to the opponents hitting successfully back against us. We need to remain aggressive down the stretch in close game to put teams away. If we can do this I feel we will get over that hump we have been struggling with.”

This week the Lions hosted Algona Tuesday.  They are on the road Thursday to Crestwood.  Saturday they will play at Forest City.