The Iola Mustangs and Crest Lady Lancers made an unexpectedly early exit from Saturday’s Iola Invitational Volleyball Tournament Saturday.
Iola and Crest each failed to exit pool play after falling to Parsons and Labette County in round-robin action. The Mustangs ended the day 1-2 while the Lady Lancers finished 0-3.
“Overall, it was really good. We saw a lot of improvement throughout the day,” Iola coach Lauren Moots said. “From losing to Parsons in our very first match to a three-set loss to Labette at the end of the day, it was hard, but the girls battled throughout the day and got better. You love to see that.”
The Mustangs picked up their first win of the season with a 25-15 and 25-14 sweep of Crest. Junior outside hitter Dally Curry had a strong game with a team-leading 9 kills, but Haiyden Desmarteau turned more than a few heads after finishing second in team kills with four. She also had a team-leading four aces and a team-leading seven digs. Freshman middle hitter Lily Jerome and Curry tied for the team lead in blocks with one each.
“It’s been an amazing experience,” Desmarteau said. “We’re pretty young, but it’s pretty cool being a freshman playing on varsity.”
After picking up their first win, and evening their pool play record at 1-1, Iola hoped to break into the championship bracket against Labette but fell short. After falling in the Labette opener 25-22, Iola bounced back with a 25-23 win off a shot from sophomore outside hitter Addi Wacker.
“We were all in a big circle and crashed on the shot. The first person to get to it was going to get it,” Wacker said.
The Mustangs hoped to take the third set, but a slew of errors left them fending off match point for a large part of the contest.
Crest also had a tough day, but that was to be expected for the 1A program. Coach Carly Crow purposefully scheduled the tournament to have her girls face larger teams they’ll likely see in the postseason. Despite falling short in all three games, Crow feels the tournament was a much-needed learning experience.
“They are not in our league. They’re not the normal competition we see,” Crow said. “Today wasn’t necessarily about winning. That would have been awesome. It was seeing other teams play, learning from them. There are plenty of things we’re going to take away from today.”
