Arcadia volleyball falls to Tigers in back-and-forth Coulee opener

After one set of their Coulee Conference volleyball opener last Tuesday, the Arcadia Raiders were in fine position to start their conference schedule with a win.

But a sloppy second set allowed visiting Black River Falls back into the game, one that would become a continuous trade-off of points between the two teams. Despite pushing back in the fifth and final set to make it a close call, Arcadia fell at the hands of the Tigers 3-2.

The Raiders (1-9 overall, 0-2 Coulee) dropped another conference effort on Thursday as the Luther Knights visited. Arcadia was scheduled to continue their Coulee stretch by visiting West Salem on Tuesday before Viroqua comes to town on Thursday.

BR Falls  20 25 10 25 15

Arcadia   25 15 25 13 10 

Black River Falls made the Raiders work for the first set last week. 

With the teams tied at 17, Arcadia coach Andrea Izdepski told her team during a timeout that they needed to pick up their energy. Arcadia rallied to win 25-20 before dropping the second set for the same reason of low energy, Izdepski said.

“It kind of went back and forth. I mean we were point for point pretty much the whole set, and then we just had a little burst of energy at the end and pulled it off. And then going to the second set we lost that energy, and volleyball’s a game of momentum and they had it and we just couldn’t prevail.”

The visitors won the second set 25-15.

The third and fourth set showed the same — lots of energy from the Raiders in the third but not as much in the fourth as the Raiders won set three 25-10 and lost the fourth 25-13.

In such a back and forth game it’s about staying mentally focused, which can be hard this early in the season, Izdepski said.

“I think we’re pretty even teens as far as energy and scale and all of that. And it showed tonight and was back and forth the whole night.”

Arcadia made the visitors work for their final win. After conceding an eight-point lead in the final set, Arcadia came back to make it 14-10 on the game point. But the Tigers got the final point they needed to win the match 3-2.

Izdepski liked the tenacity her team showed in the fifth by getting back to within reach despite an early hole.

“Regardless of what the score is, the game of volleyball is crazy and anybody can win in any match. So just staying focused and never giving up and trying a couple of different kids out there, you see what happened and every kid stepped up.”

Kaitlyn Bremer paced the Raiders in kills with 12, and Breah Golden added 6. Arcadia got 30 digs from Kealey Ziegeweid  and 20 more from Bremer. Justine Sonsalla had 14.

Samantha Berg and Lauren Conrad each contributed nine assists.

Luther   25 25 25

Arcadia 11 22 16

The Raiders kept conference play going with a loss on Thursday in which play got tight quickly after a brisk opening set.

Luther took the opening set 25-11 at Arcadia High School, limiting the Raiders’ attack. Arcadia figured it out in the second set before falling by a narrow score of 25-22. The visitors  closed the effort with a 25-16 win in a deciding third set. 

Sonsalla led the team in digs with 11 while Ziegeweid and Berg had nine. Conrad paced the hosts in assists (eight) and tied for the lead in aces (one) with Sonsalla. Breah Golden had four blocks.