Indees split with Mustangs, Panthers

After a five-set loss on Tuesday, the Independence volleyball team rebounded with a sweep on Thursday to split two road matches.

The Indees led Melrose-Mindoro 2-1 last week Tuesday, but the Mustangs outscored them 40-26 in the final two sets to get the match win. On Thursday, Independence won two of the three sets comfortably as they swept Gilmanton.

The split put Independence’s record at 4-3 on the season. They earned a bye in the first round of regional play on Tuesday of this week and will play at Alma/Pepin on Thursday. The winner of that match will play again on Saturday. The Indees are the third seed, A/P is the second and Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran is the first.

IHS            25 15 25 15 11

M-M            20 25 21 25 15

The Indees took a 2-1 lead, but the Mustangs won the last two to steal the match.

Independence opened the match with a win before Mel-Min tied it with a 10-point win in the second set. The Indees rebounded and won the third to put themselves one more win away from taking the match, but the Mustangs came away with another 10-point win to force a fifth set, which they won by four.

Ziy Conner led the Indees at the net with 14 kills and two blocks, she added three service aces and three digs. Aubrie Pronschinske’s five aces led the Indees as she added six kills and 11 digs. Adison Pronschinske, Avery Pape and Emerson Pronschinske all had one ace. Adison Pronschinske also added 28 set assists and one kill while Pape had two kills and Emerson Pronschinske had 20 digs.

Amiah Ives had five kills, one assist and one dig, Alana Back had three kills and Hailey Witte had six digs.

IHS            25 25 25

GHS            19 22 17

After winning two close matches, the Indees finished the sweep with an eight-point win.

Independence took control of their first set as they won by six before squeaking out a three-point win to go ahead 2-0. The third set was the most convincing win as the Indees won by eight.

Aubrie Pronschinske’s 12 kills led the Indees as she added five digs and an ace. Conner finished with seven kills, one assist, one block, two digs and three aces. Ives also had three aces to go with four kills and one dig. Adison Pronschinske and Emerson Pronschinske both had two aces with the former adding 24 assists and five digs while the latter had five digs and two assists.

Pape led the team with 10 digs to go with two kills and one block, while Witte had seven digs. Back had five kills, two blocks, one assist and one dig.