Blocking effectively, Heron Lake-Okabena / Fulda rallied in a high school varsity volleyball match at Westbrook last Thursday evening (September 26) and pulled off a 3-1 Red Rock Conference victory over the hosting Westbrook-Walnut Grove Chargers.
The triumph by the Coyotes — on game scores of 24-26, 26-24, 25-4 and 25-12 — improved HL-O / F’s overall season record to 10-8 and put the team’s conference mark at 4-1 (wins over Hills-Beaver Creek, Southwest Minnesota Christian, Mountain Lake Area / Comfrey and W-WG, with a lone loss to conference leader Adrian).
The Coyotes will tangle with Red Rock Central (Storden-Jeffers-Sanborn-Lamberton) in a big-time conference clash at Lamberton on Thursday (October 3). RRC tied Adrian for the conference championship last fall and the Falcons are doing well (9-5, 4-1) again this season.
HL-O / F plays in the Jimmy John Classic at Marshall this weekend (Friday and Saturday, October 4-5) and will host Pipestone Area in a non-conference match at Fulda next Tuesday, October 8.
Against W-WG, the Coyotes were lifted by the blocking exploits of middle hitters Maddie Ruesch and Hailey Liepold, who combined to stop 15 Charger spike attempts. Ruesch, a senior, blocked eight W-WG hits, while Liepold blocked seven of the Charger attacks.
Liepold, a junior, finished the match with a team-leading 22 kills, being especially efficient during HL-O / F’s dominating 21-point victory in Game 3.
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