MONTICELLO — Suffice to say, Argyle’s 4-set win over one-loss Monticello Oct. 13 was the team’s biggest win of the year. Plagued in the early season with their starting setter sitting out in quarantine, the Orioles struggled in the early goings.

That all started to change two weeks ago when junior Megan Johnson returned to the lineup — a little at first, and then snowballing with a head of steam.

“It’s a lot better with everyone back, we’re going with the flow, getting things working again,” said junior Grace Ganshert after Argyle’s 25-14, 18-25, 25-20, 25-14 win over the Ponies.

With Johnson back in charge as the team’s passer, the Orioles can lean on their three big hitters up front — Maggie Godfrey, Tori Lantz and Grace Ganshert. Like Ganshert and Johnson, Lantz and Godfrey are juniors.

“They were very consistent tonight up (at the net). They were able to connect and find each other,” Argyle coach Jen Green said.

Godfrey finished the upset with a match-high 20 kills, plus an astounding 29 digs from the back row. Lantz had five kills, three blocks and two aces. Ganshert added 11 kills, two aces and 27 digs, while Johnson dished out 40 assists.

“Working together as a team is a big thing; communicating with each other is so huge. I feel like we’ve finally done that tonight and it all came together,” Ganshert said. “It really boosts our confidence. I feel like we’ve been wanting it for a long time.”

Monticello was noticeably “off” from the beginning, coach Rebecca Gustafson noted. In the opening frame, net violations took the Ponies out of their offensive rhythm.

“We haven’t been in the net all year,” she said. “We worked on blocking last night, and we haven’t worked on blocking much this year just with our masks and trying to stay apart. And so, we work on blocking and the next day we come back and we’re in the net five times.”

Argyle used a 5-point run early to take control, then went up 20-10, forcing the flustered Ponies to call a timeout and try to regroup. 

In the second set, Monticello looked as if it was back to its usual self — as in feeding the ball to sophomore slugger Ellie Gustafson. The Ponies raced out to an 8-3 lead, though Argyle jumped right back into the mix and tied it up at 10. A back-row kill by Macey Grant gave Monticello the side-out it needed to regain possession, and the Ponies went to work and closed out the set on a 15-8 run.

Argyle grabbed the control almost right away again in the third period. The Orioles scored the opening point on an ace from libero Breann Flannery, and in just a couple of blinks Argyle led 11-5, then 19-12. After Ellie Gustafson hammed down a kill for a crucial side-out, the Orioles got the ball back on yet another net violation and ran off another five points to make it 24-13, forcing coach Gustafson to call a timeout at game-point.

“We haven’t had teams hit at us that hard for weeks,” coach Gustafson said. “It wasn’t a pretty night of volleyball for the Ponies.”

Showing signs of life, the Ponies went on a 7-0 run themselves, getting to with four points at 24-20. Godfrey slammed down an emphatic kill to end the set — and seemingly much of the Ponies’ hopes for a rally in Game 4.

“We started out strong. That second set kind of hurt us, but that’s what we talked about last time — being mentally confident; mentally strong. When we dig ourselves into a hole, we have a hard time getting out of it. We bounced back really well and the girls played really well together,” Green said.

Argyle kept the momentum, scoring the first four points of the fourth set and led 8-3 after kills by Ganshert and Lantz. The Ponies took a timeout trailing 12-5, looking again out of sorts.

“We just never could get the momentum. Argyle was playing really aggressive and we were making some forced errors and some unforced errors at some really key times. We were off tonight and they were on,” Gustafson said. “It definitely makes a difference having their setter back. We couldn’t get them out of system. They were digging everything and were able to set up their hitters.”

Monticello scored six of the next eight points to get back to within 3, but it was the closest the Ponies would get. Leading 17-14, Argyle closed the set on an 8-0 run, capped by a Ganshert ace from the service line.

“I like the excitement; I like the nerves,” Ganshert said of being at the service line in crunch time.

Ellie Gustafson led Monticello with 17 kills, while Hannah Clark and Macey Freitag each had three kills. Clark added a team-high three blocks, and Katelyn Eyler recorded five aces. Grant finished with a season-high 17 digs for the Ponies, while senior setter Alexa Siegenthaler handed out 19 assists.

“Argyle played great tonight — they are much improved. We have to figure out how to come back from this,” coach Gustafson said.

Monticello came into the season with hopes at contending for a conference championship. An early season loss to Black Hawk put the Ponies a step behind, but a regular-season finale set for Oct. 19 was supposed to give Monticello a chance at redemption. In order to force a tie for the conference title, the Ponies need Black Hawk to slip up in one of its remaining matches — a slim chance for the reigning back-to-back Six Rivers Champions.