Glenwood advances to regional finals
Glenwood’s Adalynn Madison knocks down a kill in the Rams’ regional victory over Creston.
Glenwood shrugged off a slowish start and got stronger as the match went on in its 25-23, 25-7, 25-11 sweep of Creston in the Class 4A, Region 7 postseason opening round Thursday in Glenwood.
The Class 4A, No. 7 ranked Rams (35-6) played sluggish early before putting together some good rallies, according to head coach Paula Carman.
“I think a little bit of our slow start is attributed to us not having had a lot of home matches this year and the girls were super excited to be playing in front of their home crowd,” she said. “I think it was that energy, not so much the competition, that put some pressure on themselves and they came out a little tight.”
The Rams did indeed settle down after just holding on in the 25-23 set one win after leading 23-20. They would outscore the Panthers 50-18 over the final two sets.
Charley Hernandez led the Ram attack with 20 kills on the night.
“She came through with a lot of big swings for us,” Carman said. “But we had a lot of people do some good things for us. Olivia Hanover did some good things. Alli (Koontz) was had some big digs for us. We were little tight with our serving in the first set and I think as they came on, we got more into it. We also settled in our blocking. This was a balanced effort for everybody.”
The Rams are winners of 18 of their last 19 matches. Carman said in the preseason she wanted to see her team playing its best volleyball by the postseason. Skill-wise, she said, her team is there. But work remains.
“I think a lot of our players have improved where we needed them to and on technical skills, we’re right there,” she said. “Our defense, we’re picking things apart but we’re getting there. I think our biggest hurdle is playing our game. The mental aspect this time of season and the do or die, it can naturally make players play tight and so we need to get through our first sets and get clicking.”
The Rams met ADM in last night’s regional final with a spot in the state volleyball tournament on the line. Complete results from that match will appear in the next edition of The Opinion-Tribune.