In a hotly-contested match, between a pair of apparently well-matched teams, the result between Montezuma and Iowa Valley came down to which team better followed its plan of attack.
Iowa Valley did enough of that to emerge with a 3-2 set victory over the Bravettes in Montezuma on Thursday, Oct. 6.
Scores for the Tigers were 25-22, 22-25, 17-25, 26-24 and 15-8.
The Bravettes fared better when they were able to direct their attacks to Iowa Valley’s back row, forcing the Tigers to dig or bump the ball to get it to the setter.
When the Bravettes had to bump the ball over the net, or tap it over, they often got it driven right back at them.
After splitting the first two sets, serving errors and anticipation errors on defense helped Iowa Valley get an 8-3 lead. But the Bravettes came up and got some blocks at the net, then their serves starting finding their targets.
The Bravettes tied the score at 12, and kept right on going after their attacks put the Tigers into a defensive mode. Montezuma led 20-17, then a pair of baseline aces by Jadyn Sharer helped to close out a 25-17 win for a 2-1 set lead.
Two early ace serves by Kalynn Wanders in game four kept the Bravettes competitive, but Iowa Valley began booming some serves for points.
Montezuma’s Kallie Robison got a block to tie the score at 18.
A bit later, the Bravettes’ Coral Lowry got way off the floor and executed a cross-court attack that tied the score at 23.
But Iowa Valley prevailed, 26-24, then dominated the tie-breaker, 15-8.
Montezuma fell to 7-16 overall, while Iowa Valley went to 9-19.
UP NEXT – It’s SICL tourney play for the Bravettes, who play Keota at Sigourney on Monday, Oct. 10, with the winner to play immediately after.
