ALBANY — The Warriors picked up a second straight win Oct. 14 in the final matchup of the regular season, sweeping Albany 25-19, 25-20, 25-22. The victory came two days after a five-set thriller against Barneveld, meaning Black Hawk might have turned the corner at about the exact right time.
“It took us a couple of weeks — a little longer than I would have liked — but they are really starting to click together,” first-year Warriors coach Jordan Halvorsen said.
Neither team was dominant in the contest, instead both clubs battled through long volleys and tried setting each other up for mistakes.
“We had a lot of errors — unforced errors — on our side,” said Sydney Pitney, Albany coach.
Pitney talked to her players before the match, reminding the seniors it would be the last time playing on their home court.
“I mentioned before the game that it was their last home game and they have to leave it all out there on the court,” Pitney said.
Black Hawk led 4-0 and 12-6 in the opening set, leading Pitney to call a timeout in hopes of halting the momentum. Her team responded with a 7-0 run to take a brief 13-12 advantage. The two teams were knotted up at 17 before the Warriors closed on an 8-2 run. It was a situation that seemingly repeated itself in each of the next two sets.
“We just have a hard time finishing games. We compete up to a certain point and then never can get over that hump,” Pitney said. “I feel like that’s kind of been the case all season. Coming into our seeding meeting we looked at how many points are we averaging a set — and it’s about 19. So, that’s about what we scored tonight in each set.”
In the second frame, the Comets led 10-7 early on, but an 8-1 run by the Warriors put the visiting team ahead by four. That lead eventually reached seven points at 20-13, only for the Comets to charge back and pull back to within two points at 22-20, with Halvorsen calling a timeout to refocus her squad.
Pitney tried to encourage her players to keep the momentum and not get discouraged over an error or a side out, with hopes of stealing the win and evening the score.
“I just said that we have to finish strong and we’re not giving up,” Pitney said. “No matter what the end score is, I’d rather have a team fight to the end than give up.”
Black Hawk’s Tara Wellnitz took over the final three points of the set, scoring on a kill, a block and a kill to give the Warriors a 2-0 match lead.
In the third stanza, Albany again led 7-5 early on, and the two teams were knotted up as late as 18-18. A quick 4-point burst put Black Hawk up for good, with the two schools trading side-outs over the final six serves.
“When things aren’t going our way, we know to keep trying and not give up,” said Halvorsen, who added that she likes seeing her team play loose and with smiles. “We know when we have to take things seriously and not to get in our heads too much. I feel like sometimes they do lose a little focus there and I have to draw them back in. We talk about it every game — take it seriously, but have a good time.”
Wellnitz finished the day with eight kills and four blocks. Raylin Peterson had two aces and three digs, while making her presence known at the net all night. Ellie Edler added 22 assists.
For Albany, Brianna Dahl had 14 kills and 18 digs. Alana Durtschi tallied 17 digs and three blocks. Payton Firth had 12 assists and two aces, and Anna Ellinger chipped in with five kills.
Albany was set to travel to Fall River for the opening match of the Division 4 playoffs, with the winner facing fourth-ranked Monticello in the regional semifinal.
“I told the team that there’s a reason we got the nine-seed with only three set wins on the season — and that’s because every game we fight and play with all of the teams, it’s just that we don’t always finish games,” Pitney said. “I think that shows that we earned that nine seed — and deserved it. Now we have to show it Tuesday night.”
Black Hawk drew an 11-seed and was to play at North Crawford. The winner will face either 3-seed Southwestern, or 14-seed Ithaca.
“We’re coming in the underdogs, but I am trying to keep them from that mentality. Just because we are ranked less doesn’t really mean anything,” Halvorsen said. “We’ve been watching a little bit of film (on North Crawford) and think we know what we need to watch out for. Hopefully we can hit the ground running.”
