Lady Hounds get big SEC win over Chiefs

Resiliency

Honestly, Keokuk played really good defense in game 1, but when that game got over, I told the girls we did a lot of really good things and just keep the faith that what we were doing was right.”

Kelly Knustrom, FMHS head volleyball coach

FORT MADISON – The Fort Madison Bloodhounds showed some resiliency they haven’t seen regularly this year in rebounding for a 3-1 win over Keokuk Tuesday in Southeast Conference girls' volleyball action.
The Hounds overcame some early match yips, giving up a 15-5 run in the middle of the first set before rebounding for a 17-25, 25-21, 25-14, 25-23 win over the Chiefs.
In that first set, Fort Madison Head Coach Kelly Knustrom said the Chiefs made the Hounds work on offense.
“Honestly, Keokuk played really good defense in game 1, but when that game got over, I told the girls we did a lot of really good things and just keep the faith that what we were doing was right,” Knustrom said.
“Keokuk ran balls down that went to the wall and brought them back. So I’m really proud of our girls for sticking to what we were working on.”
Fort Madison let a 7-7 tie slip away and wound up on the wrong side of a 22-12 score with Keokuk scoring just two points offensively. The Lady Hounds put together a smallrun of their own on a kill and a dump to cut the lead to 24-17. The Chief’s Camryn Atterberg got a middle front kill to end the first set.
The Hounds trailed again 9-3 to start the second set, but battled back to a 10-10 tie, highlighted by back-to-back kills from Dayonna Davis and Alaina Schwerin. Junior Mara Smith, who Kunstrom said moved the ball around well in the match, found Jaycee Fullenkamp for a kill to tie things up.
Fort Madison would get their second lead of the night on a defensive error by the Chiefs for an 11-10 lead and the two teams would work through three more ties before Fort Madison would go up 18-16 on a Davis kill and keep the lead for good for the second set win.
Fort Madison ran away in set three with leads as much as 9 points. Sydney McEntee would get her bearings in the middle of that set, getting three kills - one off her own block at 17-10, to lead the Hounds as Keokuk seemed to tire.
The fourth set saw the Chiefs open a 10-5 lead, and it looked like a fifth-set tiebreaker was coming, but a kill by Davis at 13-17 started a small rally with Keokuk hitting long a couple times and Davis and Schwerin getting a couple kills from outside spots to tie things at 18. Ties would be the norm the rest of the way, with both teams being knotted at 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23.
Freshman Molly Schulte got a key kill from the middle to set up the match point and, on cue, Davis pounded a ball across the front row from the left outside spot to finish off the 4th set comeback where the Hounds wiped out a seven-point deficit.
Keokuk called several timeouts as the Hounds worked their way back into the 4th set and Knustrom said she told the girls to get back to the system.
“Later in the game it was back to focused volleyball. I thought we were getting a little tired. It was an intense game and they played hard. Some of the things we worked on with passing… I saw it starting to slip,” she said.
The third set saw some strong defense in the back row with sophomore Kylie Lumino getting on the floor multiple times and even diving for one-armed digs.
“She’s a goer. She has a great attitude and a great personality. She’s just a sophomore but she’s not afraid to hold people accountable. She’s pretty infectious and people gear toward her,” Knustrom said.
Davis led the Lady Hounds in the big conference win with 22 kills, 23 digs, and a block. Many of those came from the middle of the floor on a set back from Smith.
“Dayonna’s full rotation this year and we do rely on her in the back row. She swings well there, but Kylie can get it done back there, too. Mara did a really good job of mixing it up and finding the hot hand.”
Davis said the team was communicating better Tuesday night.
“I think we’re playing better just being able to communicate,” she said. “It’s part of the thing to set me up in the back row. It creates more options for us and gets the defense on the other side kind of confused a little bit. It works out.”
Fullenkamp had nine kills and Schwerin had six. Smith racked up 43 assists, 14 digs, and came up with two blocks. Lumino was 14 of 14 serving with an ace and 14 digs of her own. Kenzie Huebner had 41 digs as libero.
The Hounds (3-11, 1-1 in SEC) were coming off a 3-set sweep at the hands of Mt. Pleasant last Tuesday and handn’t played in a week. Knustrom said they still are developing confidence, but that showed up tonight.
“I wasn’t happy when we played Mt. Pleasant. We put a lot of balls in the middle of the court. But we haven’t played since last Tuesday. Tonight, they were a lot better. They have that capability, the skills are there, a lot of times it’s the mindset. We still have to build confidence.”