Nothing comes easy in high school sports, but coming off a tough loss to CMCS, the Panther volleyball team made it look easy Tuesday in a 25-8, 2512, 25-9 Camden Conference sweep over Yellow Medicine East.
The win moved the Panthers to 5-2 in the Camden South and 11-9 overall before a tough match at first-place Minneota (7-0 in the South) tonight. The Vikings have won 12 straight matches.
“Just for confidence, this was really good for us,” TMB coach Heather Kamrud-Rice said. “We were doing a few behind-the-scenes things, too, thinking about our next match — some things that we didn’t do so well against CMCS.”
TMB flexed its muscles right from the start against the Sting, especially up front, where they dominated the early goings. Point after point came off TMB kills from a number of different hitters, as the Sting rarely had an answer.
TMB’s lead in the first set ballooned to 12-1, and the Panthers kept rolling. YME, meanwhile, committed three service errors later in the set, and a back row kill by Braelynn Kirk and a block by Melaina Anrkum put the Panthers up one set to none.
The Panthers’ lead in Set 2 eventually grew from 9-1 to 22-10 before an Ankrum block. Kills by Allie Adams and Ankrum ended the set.
Set 3 saw another strong start by the home team. Ankrum had a block and a kill to put TMB ahead 14-3, and it was 19-5 after a service ace by Lanoue. Adams and Ankrum both had a pair of kills to help the Panthers close this one out in quick fashion.
“We really wanted to increase our aggressiveness at the net,” said Kamrud-Rice. “Blocking and on the attack — moving the ball more, getting all of our hitters involved. Your block is your front line of defense, and that was something I wanted them to be aggressive and consistent with. We’re going to need that consistency and aggressiveness.”
After facing off against the highly-ranked Vikings today, the Panthers will travel to Apple Valley where they will take on even more stiff competition.
“It was really important for us to have this opportunity to make some tweaks and changes and build some confidence,” Kamrud-Rice said.
Ankrum finished with 16 set assists and 11 kills; Adams had nine kills; and Braleynn Kirk had 19 digs. Lauren Knakmuhs had 15 digs.
YME 8 12 9 TMB 25 25 25 Kills: Ankrum 11, Adams 9, Dolan 5, Lanoue 5, Knott 3, Danielson. Set assists: Ankrum 16, Dolan 14, Knakmuhs, Adams, Kirk. Digs: Kirk 19, Knakmuhs 15, Dolan 7, Ankrum 6, Lanoue 4, Knott 3, Adams 3, Danielson.
Service %: 82.9 %. Service aces: Lanoue 2, Dolan, Knakmuhs, Ankrum. Blocks: Ankrum 3.
