Edmunds County Tribune -

Ipswich outlasted North Central 3-0 in girls' high school volley action Monday evening in Ipswich. It was indeed a straight-sets win against a scrappy Thunder team that continued to improve as the evening progressed along.

"They were very scrappy just as we anticipated," said IHS coach Trent Osborne. "We were able to get them out of system with our serving enough to get ourselves some good swings in transition offense. I thought our passers and setters really did a nice job of getting the hitters some great looks.”

Ipswich won the initial set 25-12, the next one 25-15 and held on for a 25-21 verdict in the third set, as the Thunder refused to go away any time soon. And with momentum being what it in volleyball a fourth set could have been very interesting possibly even leading into a tie breaker opportunity.

Ipswich was 67-74 in serving and included eight aces, led by Bailey Pitz 27-28 with two aces and Halle Heinz 6-6 also with a pair of aces. The Thunder countered with a 42-48 serving evening with a lone ace, that from Sierra Hoffman who was 6-6 at the line. Brianna Moen added a 8-8 serving effort, as well.

Ipswich's hitting attack featured 77 hits in 93 opportunities, including 42 kills. Paige Mehlberg was 21-24 with 12 kills, Hailey Bierman 10-12 with nine kills including the match point, and Katie Bierman 15-18 with eight kills. Meanwhile, the Thunder finished 54-60 at the net with 16 kills. Krystal Geier had a big night with a 17-17 hitting effort with seven kills, followed by Grace Walz 9-11 with three kills and Hope Hoerner 7-8 with three kills as well.

The respective setters had done their job quite well for both sides. Ipswich was 84 of 84 with 37 assists, paced by Pitz, 52-52 with 23 assists and Heinz 19-19 incuding 10 assists. North Central distributed even more sets, 108, with only one miss and featured 16 assists, led by Kodi Retzer, 83-83 with 14 assists.

There were two solo blocks and six assisted blocks by Ipswich, led by Mehlberg with six assists and Katie Bierman with five blocking assists. The Thunder recorded five solo blocks, led by Geier with four of them. They also came up with 29 team digs, led by Jessie Lux and Walz with nine apiece. Ipswich diggers had a busy evening totaling 69 team digs, led by Chesney Olivier and Lindsey Grabowska with 20 each.