VOLLEYBALL

The HU volleyball team wrapped up their time at the Racer Classic by topping Stephens 3-1 (23-25, 25-18, 27-25, 25-20) and then coming up short by that same score against Lawrence Tech (25-23, 25-13, 25-23, 25-16) Saturday afternoon at Elida High School.

With two wins last night, the Foresters finished 3-1 over the weekend to improve to 4-7 on the year.

“This week in practice we worked on connecting with our middles and passing consistently,” said Coach Kelsey Herber. “I think both areas of our game improved this weekend. That motivates us moving forward knowing that what we intentionally develop in practice is having a direct effect on our play.”

Playing Stephens for the first time in program history, Huntington dropped the first set only to mount an impressive comeback by winning the next three to solidify the victory.

Haley Kruse paced the Foresters offensively with 14 kills. The rookie outside has logged at least ten kills in all but one match this season. Kortney Grimm put down 12 while Tya Bynum and Leah Carter were active in the middle to finished with 12 and 11 kills respectively.

Morgan Robrock did a little bit of everything for Herber’s crew by posting 52 assists, 16 digs, eight kills (on 16 swings), two blocks and two aces. Defensive was by committee with Grimm tallying a game-best 17 digs, Olivia Krahn adding 14 digs and Layla Meyer tracking down ten.

Hitting errors haunted the Foresters in their second match in large part due to the Blue Devils’ defense at the net that racked up 12 blocks. It made for HU’s second lowest offensive efficiency of the season.

Kruse was the lone Forester to finish in double digit kills with 13. Grimm and Carter collected eight kills apiece while Maisyn Robrock chipped in seven. Morgan Robrock ran the offense by handing out 31 assists. Meyer and Grimm took charge of the defense by combining for 31 digs.

“This was a solid weekend of growth and confidence building for us,” said Herber. “We are going to work on a quick first step on defense and continuing to focus on setter-middle connection so that we are a better team by the time we open up conference play at Saint Francis on Wednesday.”

The Foresters kick off league play on Wednesday with a road trip to Fort Wayne to take on Saint Francis at 7:00 p.m.