by Kent Harshbarger

Bullettes fail to finish

By Kent Harshbarger

The Mediapolis Bullettes had victory in their grasp twice in their match up with 1A eighth rated Marquette of West Point in the quarterfinal round of the Southeast Iowa Super Conference volleyball tournament at Southeastern Community College on September 28. Each time they let it slip away and the Lady Warriors advanced with 22-20 and 21-18 wins. Marquette went on to claim the tournament title by defeating Wapello. Iowa Mennonite defeated New London to grab third place.

In the first game, Mepo erased a 4-2 Marquette lead and grabbed a 7-4 lead behind the serving of Bethany Weber. Weber served five straight points including three aces during the run.

The Lady Warriors recovered and regained an 11-8 lead and still held a 16-14 advantage before Emily Kester served four consecutive points for an 18-16 advantage. The Warriors tied the score at 18-18 before a dink by Lydia Ertz made it 19-18. Ertz followed up a Weber serve with another kill to put the Bullettes at game point, but the Warriors earned the side out and Cassie Pratt served three straight points for the win.

Mepo jumped to a 4-0 lead behind the serving of Amber Scott to start game two, but the Warriors scored the next four points to tie. Two kills by Ertz helped the Bullettes take a 9-5 advantage. A pair of kills by Kami Keller helped Mediapolis stretch the lead to 15-10, before back-to-back kills by Pratt and Holly Steffensmeier knotted the score at 16-16.

The score was tied again at 17-17 and 18-18. Again it was Pratt serving three straight points, including an ace, to end the game and the Bullettes' hopes of winning a second SEISC championship in three years were foiled.

It was a story all too familiar to Mepo head coach Dennis Jandrey. "We just couldn't get over the hump. We played well enough to win, but we have to be able to finish. When you are up 20-18 and 17-14, you should win and we didn't," Jandrey said.

Ertz led the Mepo offense with six kills with four coming in the second game. Weber, Keller and Jesika McLaughlin each had two kills. Weber notched four aces in the match while serving 11 of 12. As a team the Bullettes served just under 90% (34-38) with five aces. Emily Kester had all 12 of Mepo's assists in the loss.

Defensively, Weber had two blocks and Ertz and Keller a half of block each. Aurey Kramer's two digs led the team in that category.

The loss dropped the Bullettes season record to 18-7 in match play and to 43-16 in games.

Marquette 22-21
Mediapolis 20-18

Mediapolis Statistics
Kills: Ertz 6, Weber 2, Keller 2, McLaughlin 2, TEAM 12.
Assists: Kester 12, TEAM 12.
Serves/Aces: Weber 11-12-4, Kester 8-9-0, Kramer 3-3-0, Dideriksen 2-3-1, Scott 7-9-0, Holsteen 3-3-0, TEAM 34-38-5.
Blocks: Weber 2, Ertz .5, Keller .5, TEAM 3.
Bullettes' Record: All (Matches 18-7, Games 43-16), Division (Matches 2-2, Games 9-6).