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| SUMMIT PHOTO BY CHRIS TODD
Above is action from Forest City’s game vs. Belmond-Klemme at the NIC Tourney. Saturday. |
Indians can't quite get by Osage
Forest City goes 2-1 at tourney to earn spot in NIC Final Four
By Chris Todd
Of the Summit
BELMOND - The Forest City High volleyball team was in a position to upset Osage here Saturday afternoon at the North Iowa Conference Tournament, but couldn't pull the trigger in a 19-21, 21-13, 12-15 loss.
The Indians and Green Devils were tied at 12 in game three of the three-game set, but FC coach Paula Rotta saw her team lose the last three points.
“They had jumped out to a 6-1 lead in game three and we made a nice comeback to tie it,” Rotta said Sunday night. “We came back later to tie it at 12 but that's as far as we got. They have a good team, and it was a good match for fans to watch. We just came up a little short.”
The Indians didn't have much time to dwell on the loss but instead, had a golden opportunity to redeem themselves.
Monday night, they met up with state-ranked Lake Mills in the semifinals of the tournament with Garner-Hayfield meeting Osage in the other semifinal. The two winners met in the tourney championship game immediately after the semifinal.
The Indians, meanwhile, got to their pool championship game with Osage Saturday earlier with wins over Belmond-Klemme and West Hancock.
Forest City opened Saturday morning with an impressive 21-9, 21-10 win over the Broncos. The Indians followed that up with a 21-9, 21-7 win over West Hancock in their second match of the day.
In both of those games, the opponents found it hard to deal with Forest City's tough serving. Not only does Rotta preach accuracy with her team in serving, but also wants her players to make good, tough serves as well.
Rotta added that her team's serve reception was good in the first two games and lauded the play of Courtney Farland, Maria Levang and Sam Bartlett in the back row.
“When you limit teams to single digits in points, you know your serve receive is working well,” Rotta said. “I thought Sam, Maria and Courtney did a nice job returning serves for us all day.”
After all three of Saturday's games, senior hitter Holly Gilbertson was the Indians' kill leader with 18. She was also 20 of 22 at the service line with six aces.
Freshman Tab Blaser was 23 of 23 at the line and finished with 15 kills. Paige Bartleson finished with 46 set assists and Levang was also tough at the service line, hitting on 23 of 24 serves with seven aces.
The Indians started the week Sept. 30 with a 21-13, 21-19, 21-19 win over Garner-Hayfield in Forest City. They had a tough 1-2 punch at the net, as Gilbertson finished with 14 kills and senior middle hitter Jenna Friederich added 13.
“It was a nice win and I thought we played a smooth game offensively,” Rotta said. “Jenna and Holly both had nice games at the net.”
Blaser came up big again, this time at the service line. She was 19 of 19 at the line.
with four ace serves.
Thursday night, the Indians play a home triangular meet with some tough competition in North Sentral Kossuth and St. Ansgar.
Saturday, they're at a tournament in Algona.
Story created Oct 07, 2008 - 14:42:01 CDT.
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