Iola Middle School’s volleyball teams kept the fans on the edges of their seats Thursday.
Visiting Chanute had just enough at the end to win both the eighth- and seventh-grade A team matches in thrilling fashion.
In A team play, Chanute’s eighth-graders withstood a six-point scoring run from the Mustangs to pull out a 25-19 win. Chanute put together a four-point rally at the end of the second set as well to cap the best-of-three match with a 25-22 win.
“We kept up with them, but just fell short,” Iola head coach Aubrey Westhoff said.
Cora Boren paced Iola’s eighth-graders with six aces and 15 good passes. Hilary Gean added three aces and five good passes. Trinity Olive and Moira Springer had 10 and five good passes, respectively.
IOLA’S seventh-graders blitzed Chanute in the first set to roll to a 25-9 win.
But Chanute fended off two set points to forge a 24-24 tie in the second.
Then, when Iola scored again to force a third match point, Chanute rallied with three straight extended rallies to eke out a 27-25 victory.
The tiebreaker also went back-and-forth, with Chanute threatening to pull away with a 14-12 lead.
Iola rallied with two straight points to even the score, but the Blue Comets stitched together back-to-back rallies to win the tiebreaker, 16-14.
“We started strong and then struggled and dropped the last two sets,” seventh-grade coach Emily Sigg said.
IN B team play, the Mustang eighth-graders fell, 25-19 and 25-17. Helena Morrison had four ace services and nine good paces. Brynna Jelinek added 11 good passes.
Iola’s B seventh-grade went 3-0 against Chanute, with a 25-23, 26-24 and 25-12 romp.
IOLA wraps up the 2025 season Saturday with a tournament in Burlington.
