Crestwood netters defeated by Charles City Comets

CRESCO - Miscues and missed opportunities by the Crestwood varsity volleyball team hurt the Cadets on Sept. 18 at home against Charles City as the Comets swept the Cadets, 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-15). The loss dropped Crestwood’s overall record to 9-9 and 0-3 in the Northeast Iowa Conference.

“The only positive thing (during the match) was Mikayla Lane,” Crestwood Head Coach Robin Gossman said. “She was the only attacker in the positive (in terms of kill efficiency).”

Lane recorded nine kills, had five kill errors and had 26 attack attempts for a kill efficiency of 0.154.

Gossman noted he would like to see the Cadets improve as a team as the season progresses.

“(The Charles City match) was the poorest performance as a team we have displayed this year,” Gossman said. “We received serve in the negative. We hit as a team in the negative. Overall we played pretty good defense, but our offense was nonexistent. 

“Some people might think we served poorly (81 percent, 46 for 57), but by the numbers it was not bad. I like to be more aggressive with the serve than most coaches. Our ace to miss ratio was a little lower than I like it to be, but it still was not bad,” Gossman said.

In game one, Charles City grabbed a quick 3-0 lead before the Cadets rallied to take a 5-4 edge on two serves by Trista Foster. After the Comets tied the game at eight, Crestwood went on a 7-4 run to take a 15-11 lead. However, the lead was short-lived as Charles City came back with a 6-2 run to tie the game at 17. Charles City closed the game strong with an 8-5 run to win, 25-22.

Game two started similar to game one. Charles City took a 3-0 lead before Crestwood tied the game at five. Charles City  went on an 8-1 run to take a 13-6 lead. The Cadets didn’t quit, though, as they went on a 10-3 run to tie the game at 16 thanks to four serves by Alexis Hoppe and two serves by Ashley Voves. Unfortu-nately for the Cadets, Charles City bounced back with a 9-2 run to win 25-18.

In game three, Charles City nabbed an early 4-0 lead before Crestwood came back to cut the Comets’ lead to 6-4. Two serves each by Trystin Thompson and Alexis Hoppe helped Crestwood slice Charles City’s edge to 9-8. The Cadets trailed the Comets, 12-10, before Charles City scored nine of the next 10 points to push its lead to 21-11. Crestwood cut the lead to 23-15 before Charles City scored the final two points to win, 25-15.

Crestwood will compete at the Waverly-Shell Rock Tournament on Saturday, Sept. 29 at 9 a.m.