Lancers defeat Tigers in 5 sets: Crothersville 4-1 in volleyball

CROTHERSVILLE

Edinburgh handed Crothersville’s volleyball team its first loss of the season on Tuesday night on the Tigers’ court.

The Lancers won 18-25, 25-22, 20-25, 25-23, 15-7, leaving the Tigers 4-1 for the season.

Crothersville coach Aaron Knieriem said his team was hurt by missed serves, as the Tigers were 83 for 100.

The Tigers held a 21-18 lead in the first set and finished strong by scoring the final four points of the match. Lauren Barnes served an ace for the final point. The second set was tied several times, the last at 22-all, before Edinburgh scored the final three points.

Crothersville built an 11-6 lead in the third set and led the rest of the way. Set point came on a hitting error by the Lancers.

The fourth set also was close throughout, and it was tied at 23-all before Edinburgh scored the final two points to force the fifth set.

“There were a couple points at critical points in games two and four, and it looked like we had it won and we gave it away,” Knieriem said. “Our leadership on the team outside of (Jessica) Schmelzle (was lacking). Schmelzle played a good game tonight.

“Our leadership on the team folded like a card table, and that’s kind of been our story in big games. If we don’t overcome that, we won’t win the kind of games maybe we should win sometimes. We just win only games people expect us to win. That’s not very exciting for us, so we’ve got to do a little bit of soul-searching. Hopefully, we can rise above it.”

Crothersville will travel to Medora on Thursday.