MENDOTA – The Mendota Spikers saw their season come to a close after taking Chillicothe IVC to three sets in the opening round of the Mendota Class 3A Regional Volleyball Tournament on Oct. 23 at the MHS gym.
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MENDOTA – The Mendota Spikers saw their season come to a close after taking Chillicothe IVC to three sets in the opening round of the Mendota Class 3A Regional Volleyball Tournament on Oct. 23 at the MHS gym.
The charged-up Spikers managed to hold off the Ghosts for a 25-23 victory in the opening set before IVC settled in and rolled to 25-9, 25-14 wins in the final two sets to take the match. Mendota ended the season with a 9-23-2 record.
IVC opened the match with a 2-0 lead before a side-out kill by Mendota’s Jaelyn Fitzgerald got the Spikers on the board. Reiss Buettner stepped to the service line and reeled off four straight points to give Mendota a 5-2 lead. IVC came back to knot the score at 5-5, but a side-out block by Fitzgerald gave the Spikers a lead they would never relinquish.
Myah Boelk recorded four straight service points, including a pair of aces, to put Mendota up 10-5 and force an IVC timeout. The Spikers bumped their lead to 20-10 before IVC’s Casey Grove tallied eight straight from the service line to draw her team within a pair.
A double-block executed by the Ghosts made it 24-23 Spikers before a Fitzgerald kill gave the Spikers the victory.
Mendota grabbed an early lead in the second set (2-0), but IVC tied the game at 4-4 and then took off from there. The Ghosts went from a 12-6 lead to an 18-6 bulge on six straight service points by Abby Camp. IVC’s Hannah Benson was a force at the net during the stretch, posting three blocks and a kill.
Like in set two, the Spikers led early 2-1, but IVC’s versatile power game really rose to the occasion and was too much for Mendota to handle. The Ghosts stretched their lead to double digits at 18-8 and the Spikers could get no closer.
Fitzgerald paced Mendota with 10 kills and five blocks. Buettner added five kills and led with 14 assists and 10 service points. Larkin O’Donnell topped the team with six digs. Also, Boelk had five kills, Peyton Baird picked up four blocks, Alex Barrera and Abby Phalen each had five digs, and Ella Massey totaled 10 assists.
