Athletics refuse to lose
Published 9:50 pm Monday, September 10, 2012
Lyle-Pacelli's Courtney Walter tips the ball against Riceville, Iowa in Lyle Monday. The Athletics swept the match in three games. -- Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
LYLE — The Athletics twice had their backs to the wall, but they weren’t about to let up.
Lyle-Pacelli came back from a six-point deficit in game two and a seven-point deficit in game three as it swept Riceville, Iowa by scores of 25-17, 25-23, 25-17 in a volleyball match in Lyle Monday.
Lyle-Pacelli's Sarah Holtz goes up for a tip against Riceville, Iowa in Lyle Monday. -- Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
The Athletics (2-5 overall) trailed the final game 15-12 when Ann Rysavy knocked down a kill and served 11 straight points, including four aces, to put the match out of reach.
“I wanted to finish it off so bad,” said Rysavy, who led LP with 12 kills, 17 digs and seven aces. “I’ve been practicing those serves, but in the last tournament (on Saturday) I hadn’t been able to do it. I tried them tonight and they worked.”
Rysavy, a junior, was instrumental in the game two comeback as well as LP trailed 21-17 before she came up with back-to-back kills to get her teammates going. Rysavy also had a kill that stopped a seven-point serving rally by Riceville in game three.
LP head coach Lindsay Leif liked what she saw from Rysavy on Monday.
“This year leadership has been pretty equally distributed, but it’s kind of like Ann is reassuming her role on the team as a leader,” Leif said. “She’s really smart on the court and I think the younger girls can learn a lot from her play.”
LP had some of its younger players step up as freshman Courtney Walter served seven straight points to open the first game and freshman Sarah Holtz hammered down 10 kills.
“(Sarah) has come so far from last year,” Leif said. “She’s like a coach’s dream. Everything you tell her, she’ll do on the next play. She’s a really smart volleyball player, she has athletic ability and she can really put it down.”
The Athletics will now focus on a match with LeRoy-Ostrander (5-2 overall), which comes to Lyle Tuesday at 7:15 p.m.
The Lyle-Pacelli volleyball team celebrates a point against Riceville, Iowa in Lyle Monday. -- Rocky Hulne/sports@austindailyherald.com
Rysavy said it helps to be coming into that match off of a sweep.
“It gets us really confident, especially with LeRoy coming here tomorrow,” she said. “We’ve never beaten LeRoy in my high school career and they’ve had some good players. It was great to win in three tonight. We made mistakes but then we worked together as a team and got back those points that we lost.”
LP stats: Ann Rysavy, 12 kills, 17 digs, 7 ace serves; Sarah Holtz, 10 kills; Courtney Walter, 24 set assists, 7 ace serves
