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Thursday, October 16, 2025 at 4:09 PM

Panthers push Canby to 4 sets

Panthers push Canby to 4 sets
TMB HITTER GRETCHEN LANOUE celebrates a point in the third set of last week’s Camden Conference match against the Canby Lancers.

Just a week after upsetting the No. 1 team in Class A, the Canby Lancers, winners of five straight matches, rolled into Tracy last Thursday looking to improve on their 8-2 Camden Conference record.

They won the match, but it was by no means easy.

Playing one of their finest matches of the season, the Panthers pushed the Lancers to the limit before falling in four sets, 23-25, 25-20, 14-25, 16-25.

“We needed that,” TMB coach Heather Kamrud-Rice said. “That was everything they’ve been working for coming together. That was our goal tonight — let’s start small, just take a set from Canby. If we can do that, it gets us launching in the right direction. There were five or six points in the other sets, where there are things we can fix. It’s not like that was the very best that we had.”

TMB proved from the start that it wasn’t going to go away without a fight. Set 1 was close all the way, and the Panthers eventually tied it at 20 on kills by Elsie Knott and Melaina Ankrum. TMB worked to a 22-21, lead, but the powerful Canby hitters stepped up late, and four kills lifted the Lancers to the win.

“There are things we can do better in the sets we lost, to get five or six more points,” Kamrud-Rice said.

The Panthers carried their momentum from the first set into the second, jumping out to a 10-6 on the stretch of a kill by Knott and an ace serve by Piper Freeburg. A Canby timeout did little to sway the momentum, as TMB would score six of the next eight points for a 16-8 cushion.

Kamrud-Rice said playing against an elite team like Canby gave her players a little extra pep in their step.

“It’s a completely different motivation amongst these girls when we play these elite teams,” she said. “They take it more personal … they love competition. They know when they step out on the court against a team like Canby, it’s going to be all in.”

Canby was able to push back and tie the set at 19, but TMB’s blocking keep the Panthers in front, as a block by Ankrum and a double block by her and Gretchen Lanoue were a part of a 6-1 run to end the set. It was the Panthers’ first set win since Sept. 20.

“(Our blockers) were doing a fantastic job,” said Kamrud-Rice. “All of our blockers, whether it showed in the number of blocks they got, or just the amount of court they were taking up so our defense could assemble around them. I think one thing our block was doing so much better tonight was making better predictions, watching what they’re players were doing instead of reacting after the ball comes out of the setter’s hands.”

In Set 3, the Lancers began to flex their muscles, but it took some time. The Lancers were up just 11-10 before they rolled off 13 of the next 15 points to take the set.

Set 4 was close at the start as well. A kill by Allie Adams pulled the Panthers to within three points at 15-12, but Canby went on another strong run, eventually building a 2114 advantage. The Panthers managed just one more point the rest of the way.

• TMB is seeded No. 7 in the Sub-Section South Tournament and will host Edgerton (5-19) in a play-in game at 7 p.m. on Monday. The winner of that match will travel to No. 2 Westbrook-Walnut Grove for a 7 p.m. match on Oct. 24.

THIS CANBY BLOCK was no defense for an Allie Adams kill in the second set of last Thursday’s match. Adams and the Panthers took that second set. Photos / Per Peterson
MELAINA ANKRUM (8) and Bella Martinez combine for a block attempt against the Lancers.

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