by Chanse Hall
sports@clreporter.com
The Clear Lake Lion (7-2) volleyball team hosted the Humboldt Wildcats (4-5) Tuesday, Sept. 12 in a North Central Conference matchup to get Homecoming events underway.
Humboldt 3, CL 1
Homecoming was spoiled for the Lions, however, as the Wildcats took a 3-1 victory after falling behind 1-0 early.
Set 1 | CL 25, HW 18
The first set saw the Lions come out strong with returns from senior Xada Johnson and freshman Ella Landau.
Leading 4-3, the Lions continued to push the gas – taking a 14-9 lead, but a second wind from the Wildcats saw them battle back to trail 23-18.
Clear Lake won the first set 25-18.
Set 2 | HW 25, CL 23
The second set of the night saw Humboldt continue the rally they started in the first, but again, the Lions were on top 4-3.
Johnson got the first ace of the night and soon enough the Lions led 9-5.
It was a shortlived lead, however, and the Wildcats battled back 15-12.
Lions head coach Heather Johnson called a timeout, which seemed to put a fire under the Lions as they outscored the Wildcats 10-7 to tie the game at 22.
It wasn’t enough, though, and the Lions fell in set two, 25-23.
Set 3 | HW 25, CL 23
Leading the game 2-1, the Wildcats were controlling the narrative and had the Lions on their heels, but the Lions never laid down.
Falling behind 3-1, the Lions came back to tie things up with another Johnson ace at 7 points each.
The Wildcats found another run, however, outscoring the Lions 7-3 to take a 14-10 lead.
A Clear Lake rally closed the gap to one and a Rowan O’Keefe kill put the Lions back on top.
Miscommunication and frustration got the best of the Lions and easy points came to the Wildcats as they took a 23-22 lead.
Johnson put the Lions even but the ensuing Lion serve went into the net and the game point fell into the middle of the Lions looking.
The Wildcats now led 2-1.
Set 4 | HW 25, CL 19
The Lions needed a win to stay alive, the Wildcats needed a win to go home with a victory.
Set four saw the Lions fall to 7-3 on the season and the Wildcats break even at 5-5.
The Lions started off on top but were soon tied.
Set four saw multiple volleys across the net, unfortunately for the Lions, they couldn’t get anything to fall their way.
The Wildcats took a 15-12 lead before stretching it further to 18-14.
Humboldt would go on to outscore the Wildcats 7-5 to take the game victory.
“I always tell my kids that I don’t really care if you win or lose, that is sometimes out of our control, but we can control the way we play,” said coach Johnson. “We fell short tonight and I think some of that was we felt like we couldn’t come back. I really liked our response in the third set. We had a come to Jesus moment and they came out and battled really hard after that and that was a highlight of the match.”
Coach Johnson felt the win could have been a big one on the season and was disappointed with the loss, but has hopes for the future with the young team.
“It’s disappointing, that would have been a great win for us but now our next step is finding out how we are going to respond,” said Johnson. “That next match is always super important and I have no doubt we will learn some things from tonight and hopefully move forward.”
Clear Lake recently sat atop the conference, along with Algona as both hadn’t suffered a conference loss.
With the loss to Humboldt, the Lions will drop down the order – but with only a few games played between North Central teams so far, it’s anybody’s title to win.
Crestwood
CL 3, Crestwood 0
Bouncing back from a home loss to Humboldt last Tuesday, the Lion volleyball squad improved to 8-3 over the Crestwood Cadets, winning 3-1.
Close games, including one that went into extra points, saw the Lions show resolve and the belief they could battle back, something Lion coach Heather Johnson, saw lacking after the loss on Tuesday.
The first set saw the Lions take a 25-22 victory over the Cadets before Crestwood came back in the second and took a 27-25 victory over the Lions.
The Lions made a statement in the third set, taking a 25-15 victory over the Cadets before going into the fourth set.
Crestwood looked to send things into a fifth set and looked to be happening with a Cadet 17-12 lead, but the Lions battled back and took a 27-25 victory to give the Lions a 3-1 match victory against the Cadets.
Forest City Tournament
The Lion volleyball squad traveled to Forest City on Saturday where they competed in a tournament with Roland-Story, Algona, Clarion-Goldfield-Dows, Lake Mills, Central Springs, Saint Ansgar, Webster City and, of course, Forest City.
Sets went to 21 and were best-of-three. Sets that went into the third set went to 15.
It was a rough morning for the Lions, however, as they suffered three losses on the weekend.
Lake Mills
The Lions first faced Lake Mills (13-3) and started off strong, winning the first set 21-18.
The next two sets saw the Lions struggle, falling 21-15 and 15-10 giving the Lake Mills Bulldogs a 2-1 victory.
Roland-Story
It was much of the same with the Roland-Story Norsemen (9-3) as the Lions came out strong, winning the first set 21-17 before falling in the next two 21-12 and 16-14.
Clarion-
Goldfield-Dows
The Clarion-Goldfield-Dows Cowgirls (9-9) gave the Clear Lake Lions a fit in the first set, defeating Clear Lake 21-16 but the Lions battled back in the second set to win 21-16.
The third set saw the Cowgirls take the victory by a score of 15-12, to add the third loss of the day to the books for the Lions.
Forest City
The Lions suffered their fourth loss on the day to the Forest City Indians (13-3), dropping to 8-7 on the season.
The first set saw the Lions take a 21-19 victory over the Indians but the second two went in favor of Forest City.
The second set saw the Indians win 21-18 and the third set saw a defeated Lion squad muster only six points while Forest City won with 15.
Stats from the tournament were not available at press time.
