Edmunds County Tribune -

Ipswich dropped a 3-1 high school varsity non-conference girls' volleyball outing last Tuesday vs. Potter County in Gettysburg. The Tigers actually won their first set 25-18. But the hosts quickly regrouped for three straight wins —25-16, 25-21 and 25-19.

Ipswich went 116-136 at the net that featured 28 kills and 19 setting assists, led by Quincy Olivier with 12 and Katie Bierman with seven. That helped lead to Baylee Kulesa's 31-35 hitting evening, including nine kills. Gracie Lange went 26-27 at the net with seven kills and Bierman added a 28-34 effort there which included six kills.

In serving, Ipswich finished 44-63 with eight aces, led by Olivier's 9-9 evening with two of those aces. The balanced team effort at the line that evening also included Lange at 8-10 with a pair of aces. Next in serving efficiency would be Madison Geditz, 8-11. And Vanesa Diaz featured two aces, as did Bierman. Ipswich had 16 block assists, led by Diaz and Lange with five apiece. The Tigers would also utilize 82 defensive digs, paced by Geditz with 30 and Kulesa's 20. Bierman also reached double-figures territory with 10 digs.

IPSWICH VS. LANGFORD AREA

Lake Region Conference battles have a reputation of being close in any high school sport that you might name and this was certainly the case when the IHS netters traveled over to Langford last Thursday. This could also be called a Battle of the Big Cats and unfortunately the Tigers lost a 3-2 outcome to the home team Lions.

And even the tie-breaker was super close with the Lions winning that 16-14. Ipswich had lost its first set 25-22 earlier in the evening , but regrouped to capture the second and third sets 25-20 and 27-25, respectively. But the Lions and their fans weren't quite ready to concede the issue and forced the tie-breaker in a hard-fought 29-27 win of the next set to even the match at 2-2.

There are usually some impressive statistics in a five-set match and this was true last Thursday. Ipswich ended up with a 145-177 evening at the net and included 54 kills. No fewer than 18 of those kills were produced by Gracie Lange who finished an overall 39-44 there. Next was Katie Bierman with 16 kills among her 45 accurate hits in 57 tries. Ipswich was led in setting by Quincy Olivier with 23 assists and Bierman was also in double-figures in that department with 14 assists. Altogether Ipswich dished out 40 assists.

Ipswich compiled an impressive 108-123 team effort at the serving line that featured 14 aces. Madison Geditz ended up 24-25 with two aces. Bierman finished 20-23 in serving attempts with three aces. Vanesa Diaz had 19 accurate serves in 24 tries with three aces and Olivier went 18-20 with three aces, while Baylee Kulesa was next at 17-18 in serving. Lange completed the evening at 10-13 with three aces.

The Tigers were scheduled to play North Central in Roscoe on Monday. They travel to Faulkton on Oct. 5.