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LINCOLN — A slow start against the top-seeded Cambridge Lady Trojans at Pinnacle Bank Arena Friday morning, Nov. 3, in Lincoln plagued the Wynot Lady Blue Devils throughout the semifinal match in the Class D2 State Volleyball Championships.
The Lady Blue Devils fell to the Lady Trojans 25-17, 25-20, 15-25 and 25-21 to end up in Saturday’s D2 consolation match and send Cambridge to the state finals.
Wynot overcame a slow start in the opening round, but Cambridge proved to be too much to overcome.
“We didn’t play our best volleyball today,” Lady Blue Devils coach Sidney Messersmith said. “Some of that was us and some of that was Cambridge, but I will tell you, we did not give up. We could have folded and got ready for tomorrow after that second set, but these kids aren’t made that way; we battled until the end.”
The way the match unfolded, it proved the coach’s opinion.
Down 2-0 after the second set, the Lady Blue Devils got busy trying to get back in the match.
Kills by Kayla Pinkelman, Allison Wieseler and Kinslee Heimes, coupled with three Cambridge errors, staked Wynot to a 6-1 lead to open the set.
The Lady Trojans answered with three straight points before a quickset winner by Wieseler and the set was on with Wynot up 7-4.
A six-point run by the Lady Blue Devils later in the quest to reach 25, including back-to-back ace serves by Jaylin Geisen, pushed the advantage to 12-5.
Both of Geisen’s aces hit the net and flipped over to the Cambridge side of the court and Geisen finished the match with six aces from the service line.
The set was not as close as the final score indicated.
Back-to-back ace serves by Courtney Pinkelman gave the Lady Blue Devils a 21-10 lead.
Eliza Lange hit a kill off the Lady Trojan block that went straight down on Cambridge’s side of the net and a Heimes winner and the final kill in the set by Kenna Oligmueller got Wynot to the final score.
“We worked so hard this season; I was so proud of the way they kept playing volleyball,” Messersmith said. “I can’t say I was surprised, with our girls playing on; they have reacted this way all season.”
Even the fourth set, which ended up being the final set, showed the Lady Blue Devil’s grit and determination.
The chances for a finals appearance seemed slim when Wynot fell behind 8-1 in the set.
After a kill by Pinkelman, who finished with a team-high 14, the Lady Blue Devils had climbed back to within three, 10-7.
With the score back up to 16-11, Wynot made another run to close the gap, scoring six of the next seven points to even the score at 17-17.
“That is the kind of grit we have, to just keep pushing,” Messersmith said. “We knew they were a great team, we knew they would get their kills and their points; we just had to keep coming at them with whatever we could.”
