Timberwolves beat Cassville, lose at Potosi

By A.J. Gates

A victory over visiting Cassville last Tuesday night, followed by a loss to Potosi the following Thursday evening, has coach Dianne Langmeier and her River Ridge volleyball team at 2-5 in the Six Rivers West conference standings.

The Timberwolves and Comets battled back-and-forth in the first set of Tuesday night’s match, where River Ridge came out victorious with a 27-25 score.

Coach Langmeier’s squad then road their momentum in the second and third sets, where they picked up victories of 25-20 and 25-18.

“We had a lot of serving errors in the first set and came back from being behind quite a bit to slip by Cassville,” explained coach Langmeier. “Some key blocking and great serving by Emily Tesar and Reghan Zinkle got the girls fired up in the next two sets to help them get the win.”

Zinkle and Tesar each concluded the contest with five service aces, while Zinkle also had a team-high five kills and four blocks in the victory.

Hailey Kramer, Ava Nies and Alix Goeke each had four kills, while Nies and Goeke also had three blocks each. Dishing out a team-high 13 assists was Mallory Crubel, while Josey Drone came up with a team-high 21 digs.

On the following Thursday night, River Ridge traveled to Potosi, where it looked like the Timberwolves were going to sweep the Chieftains with victories of 25-17 and 25-15 in the first two sets.

Potosi came storming back though, taking sets three and four by scores of 25-17 and 25-20 before claiming victory in the fifth and deciding set, 15-5.

Zinkle led River Ridge with 19 kills, to go along with three service aces, while Maya Drone chipped in 10 kills and Goeke seven.

Crubel distributed a team-high 30 kills in five sets, while Josey Drone had 35 digs and Ellaina Gage 21.

Following this past Monday night’s match up with league-leading Highland, the Timberwolves travel to Shullsburg Thursday night.