In preparing for last Saturday's Britton-Hecla volleyball invite, Ipswich dropped a pair of Lake Region Conference decisions, one at home and the other on the road. The Lady Tigers lost in straight sets in both instances. They lost a home-court 25-8, 25-11, 25-21 outcome to Warner and then two nights later at Northwestern the host team topped Ipswich 25-6, 25-16 and 25-15.

Against Warner, though, despite the eventual setback, things progressively got better for the Lady Tigers. Especially during the third set where the two LRC rivals battled back and forth throughout the entire set!

Warner was 100-115 in its net attack and included 42 kills. Ipswich's own net play was led by Abby Grabowska, 47-50 with six kills. Avery Sylte was next at 8-10 with four kills. Altogether the Lady Tigers were 96-108 with 14 kills.

In setting Ipswich was led by Halle Heinz with nine assists and Bailey Pitz, four assists. Ipswich was 124-125 in its total setting opportunities, including 14 assists.

The service line provided Warner with four aces among its 69 accurate serving attempts. Ipswich countered with a 39-43 serving effort that also included four aces. Lindsey Grabowska was 9-10 in serving with an ace and Heinz 9-9, also with an ace. Sylte and Abby Grabowska each added a service ace.

Ipswich utilized a balanced digging effort with 81 total digs, led by Chesney Olivier with 23, Abby Grabowska with 22 and Lindsey Grabowska with 19. The Lady Tigers' defensive effort also included Paige Mehlberg's solo block and two block assists and Lindsey Grabowska with one block assist.

At Northwestern, meanwhile, the hosts pounded out 42 kills among their 90 total hits and were 69-72 at the service line with five aces. Ipswich finished with a 129-144 hitting effort that featured 17 kills. Abby Grabowska was 43-48 with 11 kills and Heinz 15-17 with three kills. Ipswich was 35-39 in serving with three aces, led by Abby Grabowska 7-7 with two aces and Pitz, 7-8,1. Lindsey Grabowska was also 9-9 at the line.

Chesney Olivier

Ipswich finished 109-114 with 16 assists in its total setting duties, led by Heinz, 52-55 with 10 assists and Pitz with six assists among her 44 sets in 46 tries.

Ipswich came away with 56 digs, again paced by Abby Grabowska with 14 digs, followed by Olivier with 12 and also Lindsey Grabowska with 10 digs. Mehlberg added a solo block and two assisted and Lindsey Grabowska and Abby Grabowska each an assisted block.