Edmunds County Tribune -

Ipswich improved its girls' high school volleyball record to 15-2 last week, going into a huge homecourt match vs. LRC and Region 2B rival Faulkton Area that had been scheduled for earlier this week. (Those results weren't available as of our newspaper publication deadline.)

"It is too early to worry about the (2B) bracket too much (but don't think we don't keep our eye on it)," says IHS coach Trent Osborne. "We need to keep putting W's on the board and then let the chips fall where they may at the end of October." He further explained "To be the 'Big Dog' you have to beat the 'Big Dog'. So that needs to be our mentality for the rest of the season. We still haven't played our best. We have plenty of room for improvement and we will need to show that improvement to get through the rest of our schedule unscathed."

That said, Ipswich was able to handle Potter County quite handily with a 3-0 sweep of the Battlers here on Senior Night, Oct. 1 in the Tiger Den. Ipswich had signaled its intentions with an early 6-0 lead in its initial set enroute to an eventual 25-13 win. The visitors showed some progress in a 25-15 loss of set #2 and even more improvement during a third-set 25-17 setback. Ipswich indeed gradually built its leads in both of those respective sets.

Overall Ipswich received a 21-22, 13-kills hitting effort from Paige Mehlberg. Lindsey Grabowska was next at 14-17 with five kills, followed by Halie Feldman 11-11 with four kills. They helped produce an overall 75-72 hitting edge by the Tiger girls and an even more impressive 33-11 kills lead.

Meanwhile, Ipswich finished 66-74 in serving with eight aces, led by Halle Heinz 13-16 with four aces and Chesney Olivier 13-15 with two aces. The Battlers were paced by Dakota Goebel 7-7 at the line and Grace Goebel 6-6 there. They landed 43 serves out of 50 attempts, but with no aces.

Ipswich distributed 85 of 87 setting opportunities, including 33 assists, paced by Halle Heinz, 41-42 with 13 assists and Bailey Pitz 37-37 with 11 assists. The visitors were a perfect 93 with nine assists.

Ipswich received seven solo blocks and four assisted, led by Mehlberg, who is now the school career blocking leader, with four solos and three assists that evening. Halie Feldman was next with two solos and one assist. The Battlers had two solo blocks and 60 digs. Ipswich edged them with 64 digs, led by Chesney Olivier with 16 and Tarynn Kleffman with 15.

Ipswich is preparing for an October 12 clash of the Tigers vs. Mobridge-Pollock in Ipswich.