Ipswich dropped its opening high school volleyball encounter last Tuesday in Aberdeen.

The Tiger girls were defeated in straight sets 25-14, 25-15, 25-12 by a Lake Region Conference opponent Aberdeen Christian. At one juncture of the opening set Ipswich only trailed 14-12, but the Knights were able to grab the momentum and more or less maintain it the rest of the evening.

But Kaitlyn Bierman had four of Ipswich's 10 kills and was 12-17 overall at the net. Ipswich finished 59-76 in net play. But the hosts were able to obtain 38 kills, led by Mary Fites with 12 and Hanna Miller with 11. Ipswich was able to set up its own net attack paced by Quincy Olivier's perfect evening that included nine of her team's 10 assists. (Madison Geditz had the other assist.)

At the service line Ipswich went 37-43, led by Geditz who included one ace among her 10 accurate serves in 10 tries. Olivier was 7-8 with one ace and Gracie Lange 7-7 at the line. Baylee Kulesa had one ace and Vanesa Diaz the remaining ace of Ipswich's total of four. The hosts were 73-80 in overall service attempts and featured three aces.

Defensively Ipswich had 47 digs with a balanced team effort paced by Geditz with 14 and Kaitlyn Williams with 10. Kulessa contributed a pair of solo blocks. The Knights came up with 56 digs and four solo blocks with two assisted.