Rams one win from state

Glenwood battled back from a first set loss to win three straight in a 21-25, 25-23, 25-18, 25-13 win over Des Moines Christian in the Class 4A, Region 7 semifinals in Glenwood Thursday.

The No. 9 ranked Rams (29-8) got off to a shaky start against Des Moines Christian (16-22) as they adjusted to what head coach Jenn Schneider called “postseason nerves” and the Lions’ length on the front line to win the final three matches.

“I think nerves were a little high in a high intensity match,” Schneider said. “To see us come out on top, I’m proud of the girls. The grit they showed is a testament to the work we’ve put in this season and the battles physical and mentally we’ve faced this year so to come out on top is a good reward.”

Schneider admitted her team didn’t play its best the first set and sjhe talked about that with her team in the hallway between the first two sets.

“The great thing about this sport is you get more opportunities to play. It’s not one and done. It was a matter of how we responded and the girls had to make that choice themselves. Heading into the second set we were still a little slow but the more we saw ourselves succeed and things started clicking, we got back to playing the ball we know how to play instead of getting in our head and making silly mistakes.”

The Rams came out early in set two and trailed by as many as five points early before settling in and taking over at 19-17 and holding the Lions off for the win.

The final two sets were “Glenwood volleyball,” according to Schneider.

“We have to give credit to Des Moines Christian, they picked up a lot of stuff we normally see fall for us which was defeating for our girls a little bit early but we adjusted well. Our block started to clean it up and that helped our defense. Even when the block wasn’t there our defense was pretty good.”

Addie Madison led the Rams with 14  kills and four aces on the night.

With the win Glenwood advanced to meet No. 5 ranked North Polk (26-13) in Monday’s regional finals with a bid in this Iowa State Volleyball Tournament on the line. Complete results from that match can be found in the next edition of The Opinion-Tribune.