Tigers rally, end Knights’ season
TABOR - Fremont-Mills started strong but could never put Griswold away as the Tigers rallied for a two set deficit to win 17-25, 24-26, 25-22, 25-22, 15-8 in the Class 1A, Region 2 opening round in Tabor last Tuesday.
The loss ends the Knights’ season with a record of 16-17 overall and 3-4 in the Corner Conference. The toughest loss of the season is usually the last but even Malcom said the defeat was a tough one for her and her team.
“This was a really tough loss,” said Fremont-Mills coach Tracy Malcom. “It’s physically and mentally draining. To go in with the girls after the game and not have anything to say is even tougher. I can’t put my finger on what happened and why the things went the way they did. I’m sad for my seniors and their season ending like that.”
Fremont-Mills opened the match looking like anything but a team that would be ending its season prematurely. The Knights were fluid and on point in their attack, controlling the action early.
“We came out great and get on top of them,” Malcom said. “We’re pretty comparable teams. I honestly don’t know what happened. I think maybe we got too comfortable. Sets three and fourth were super tight and could have gone either way. We came out strong and things were going well and then we started to make some mental mistakes and things went down from there.”
The Knights seemed poised for the sweep, leading 22-19 in game three but the Tigers scored the final six points to force a game four. The rally flipped the momentum and the match in Griswold’s favor.
“I called a timeout late in that set to settle the girls down, to focus them on what we needed to do and unfortunately we couldn’t get our passing going or set up our offense at all. They had some good servers who were putting it to us and we couldn’t get things set up. Sometimes it’s a mind game as well and we just couldn’t shut the door on them.”
The match marked the second time this season the Knights went all five sets– they lost their only previous match to go the distance to Stanton – after winning the opening set.
The Knights hit .230 as a team and recorded 46 kills in the match but serving and self inflicted wounds were an issue all night, Malcom said. F-M served at .874 (90-of-103) and struggled with consistency on defense and in it’s passing.
“We’re deep with hitters but we struggles in some other areas,” Malcom said. “We were in the net or over the line. Just some crucial little errors at key times and they (Griswold) capitalized on it. Our hats go off to them. They’re a good team with a good coaching staff and we wish them nothing but the best.”
Sophie Phillips led the Knights with 14 kills. Bailey Hauschild and Clara Schaaf each added nine kills.
Rachel Wietzki had 19 assists and Kendal Reed 16.
Mateya Peters paced Griswold with 17 kills.