Spartans’ season comes to an end vs. Foxes

BY JOSH STALOCH

SPORTS EDITOR

APPLETON – Unforced errors at the service line, along with a lot of heavy hitting from Fox Valley Lutheran, proved to be too much for the Luxemburg-Casco volleyball team as the Spartans were eliminated from Division 2 postseason play in straight sets, 24-26, 19-25, 19-25 on Saturday, Oct. 21.

“We missed a lot of serves tonight,” said L-C head coach Jeff Frey. “But we were being aggressive and I’m not disappointed in our girls. They played very hard.”

The Spartans found themselves down 7-2 in the first set but battled back, starting with a nice touch shot from Aubrey Frey, followed by kills from Miranda Schmidt and Isabella Vander Velden.

Frey cut the score to 7-6 with an ace and then L-C tied it up after pressuring FVL into a mishit.

The Foxes built their small lead back up in the middle of the set but the Spartans made it interesting by coming back late in the frame to make it close.

With Frey scoring several points on big kill shots, the Spartans clawed their way back from a five-point deficit and managed to trim the FVL lead to two on a huge block from Cami Onell, making it 21-19.

Onell came up with a big kill later in the set to get L-C to within one and then an unforced error from the Foxes tied it up at 22-22, prompting the home team to take a time out with momentum turning for the Spartans.

But L-C was unable to take advantage, committing a service error on the next point to hand the lead back to FVL.

They would get another chance at 24-24 but another error at the service line proved to be the last side out of the set as the Foxes closed it out at 26-24.

“We missed a lot of serves in big moments,” Coach Frey said of his team’s troubles at the line on Saturday. “In that first set, coming out of the timeout, we missed that serve and then at 24-24. Those are big moments.”

Over the next two sets, the Spartans played FVL aggressively but the home team remained out front.

When Jillian Jorgensen scored on back-to-back aces to make it 13-11 FVL in the second set, the Foxes responded by taking three-straight points.

This would be the case the rest of the way as Fox Valley Lutheran weathered the L-C attack for the Round 1 win.

“What happened tonight was not for a lack of effort,” said Coach Frey. “They gave it everything they had, FVL was just better than us in little areas. They made the plays when they needed to and we didn’t. Hats go off to them. They’re a heck of a team. But I’m proud of our girls and I’m proud of our program.”

Frey finished the match with 15 kills, 10 digs and two blocks; Schmidt had seven kills and three blocks; Payton Kaminski had 18 digs and Alayna Deprez had 32 assists.