ARGYLE — The Orioles fought Six Rivers East leader Monticello tooth and nail in their Sept. 23 matchup, but suffered a pair of losses as the night unfolded.

The Ponies won the match in four sets, 25-21, 12-25, 25-17, 25-16, though Argyle’s other loss might be harder for the team to recover from. Senior middle blocker Tori Lantz suffered a leg injury on the first volley of the second set, and while she briefly came back onto the court for a few more serves, ultimately was pulled from the game entirely.

“It stinks when you lose one of your senior leaders,” Argyle coach Connie Wunschel said while choking up. “It’s a test of their hearts and their abilities, and to be quite honest, I couldn’t be prouder of them. They came together and played as a team. It wasn’t one individual, it was everyone. It was a loss, but it was still a good night.”

The Orioles led Monticello 11-9 before a 7-2 run gave the Ponies the first-set advantage. Argyle twice got back to within a point in the frame, but used the intermission to get pumped it for Game 2.

But on the first volley, Lantz and Megan Johnson got tangled up when trying to block a kill by Monticello’s Ellie Gustafson, and both Lantz and Johnson hit the hardwood with force. Johnson was slow to rise, collecting herself off the ground, while Lantz tried to fight the pain while holding onto her knee.

She was helped off the court and did some stretching on the sidelines. On the 12th serve after Lantz went down, teammate Maggie Godfrey slammed down a spike to give the Orioles a 7-6 lead. Lantz then re-entered the match.

Nine serves after Lantz came on, her mobility began to noticeably diminish as each volley carried on. Teammate Grace Ganshert scored on a dig to put Argyle up 14-12, but on that play it became apparent Lantz would be unable to continue.

Lexi Rosenstiel, who replaced Lantz, had a key block later in the set to put her team ahead 19-16, which was the second point in an 8-5 run to close the frame.

“I’m just really proud of how the other girls stepped in. Alexis has been hurt with an Achilles heel type thing, so she really hasn’t been practicing a whole lot. Last night was one of her first full practices, and for her to step into a game and playing in that middle spot, I thought she did good,” Wunschel said.

Meanwhile, Monticello’s huddle locked themselves in during the second intermission.

“This is the first set we’ve lost in conference (this year),” said Rebecca Gustafson, Ponies coach. “We were definitely kind of caught trying to play to not make mistakes — and we were overplaying it at that. We were reaching into other people’s defenses and just getting out of system because we were nervous. It’s hard to play in a loud gym. There were a lot of fans here tonight, and they made a lot of noise.”

While the first two sets were tight throughout, Monticello took control of the third set practically from the start. Ellie Gustafson slammed home a kill to open the frame, and before the home crowd could blink, Argyle trailed 14-6.

“I think with some of the new girls stepping into a big situation, they were a little frazzled. And then we had some other players rotating to a new spot on defense, and trying to figure that out,” Wunschel said. “Tori is one of our better passers in the back row, and we were struggling without her. We tried to go to two-person receive … but it was just too much at one time.”

The Orioles opened the fourth set with a little more gusto and held a 10-6 advantage at one point, but a 10-0 run by Monticello swung the tide entirely. From there, the Ponies put it away without the Orioles getting to within less than four points the rest of the set.

“(Argyle) is a lot improved from the first time we played them. I knew we could do it, we just had to calm down and play our game,” coach Gustafson said.

Godfrey finished the night with 10 kills, 15 digs and an ace, while Grace Ganshert had nine kills, 10 digs and three aces. Johnson had a block and dished out 23 assists, and Breann Flannery added an ace and 13 digs. Godfrey and Lantz each had a single block for Argyle.

While the Orioles had five aces, the squad left even more points on the board. In the first set alone Argyle missed five serves, and even though they won the second set, the Orioles missed another seven serves. In all, Argyle gave Monticello 19 points in the match simply by not serving the ball over the net and inbounds. The Ponies had 12 services errors in the contest.

“We serve aggressively, because if we give them an easy serve, we’re going to eat it. When you play better teams, you have to take those risks and go for aces,” coach Gustafson said.

Ellie Gustafson finished with 22 kills, two blocks and 25 digs. Freshman Kelsy Grant had 24 assists, while Hannah Clark ended the night with two blocks and four aces. Katelyn Eyler added a pair of blocks, Jaden Zuber had four kills and Macey Grant tallied 13 digs.

The end of the regular season is now just two weeks away. Argyle have five Six Rivers East matches left, plus a tournament at Belmont Oct. 2. Monticello, ranked No. 5 in Division 4 by the Wisconsin Volleyball Coaches Association, is 15-1 overall and a perfect 7-0 in league play and has five league contests remaining before the postseason.

“We like going to tournaments,” coach Gustafson said, because the team gets to compete against a variety of opponents in quick succession, which means faster growth on the court. “I’d love to get into another tournament to keep building, but we think it’s more important to stay healthy and to not be exposed.”

The Ponies pulled out of the Brodhead Invitational a few weeks ago and won’t compete in another before the year is out. “We are still in the midst of COVID. We see vaccinated people testing positive, and we want to limit our exposure as much as possible,” coach Gustafson said, because a deep run could be in store. “As other teams drop out, we want to stay safe, and we want to stay healthy.”

In fact, the Ponies players voted to wear a mask while playing this season — even before the school board adopted an in-school mask mandate. “They have big goals and they don’t want to lose anybody,” coach Gustafson said.

The Orioles will also need to navigate how to play without Lantz, if she is out for an extended period of time.

“We’re going to have to talk about changing the lineup up a hair, but that’s really hard because who you take someone like a Grace (Ganshert), you’re taking away a power shot from the outside,” Wunschel said.