Whitehall drops two of three in DC play
Norah Youngbauer of Whitehall set the ball over the net during their match against Gilmanton last week Tuesday. (Times photograph by Andrew Dannehy)
After a loss to one of the Dairyland Conference’s top teams, the Whitehall volleyball team split two other matches last week.
The Norse fell to Blair-Taylor 3-1 last week Monday (see story elsewhere in Sports) before rebounding with a 3-0 win over Gilmanton the next day. On Thursday, they fell behind 2-0 before tying the match, but ultimately lost to Augusta 3-2.
Whitehall entered this week with an overall record of 3-8 and a 1-4 mark in Dairyland Conference play. They hosted Independence for a match on Tuesday of this week and won’t be in action again until this coming Tuesday when they head to Melrose-Mindoro.
WHS 25 25 25
GIL 14 22 20
After controlling the first set, the Norse were on the ropes in the second before a late charge put them ahead.
Whitehall won the first set by 11 points, but Gilmanton came out swinging in the second. The Panthers led for most of the set, but the Norse rallied late to pull out a 25-22 win. They finished the sweep with a five-point win in the third.
Strong serving helped the Norse as they had 11 aces in the match, including four by Avery Sonsalla, while Avvia Herman, Kambrie Wurzer and Norah Youngbauer all had two.
Youngbauer led the team with eight kills and 16 digs. She had two more kills than Olivia Killian while Sonsalla finished with four as Whitehall had a balanced attack at the net.
Abby Koepke led the team with 24 set assists and added eight digs. Wurzer and Sonsalla also had eight digs.
WHS 17 22 25 25 7
AUG 25 25 21 21 15
The Norse battled, but came up short in the end.
The Beavers won the first two sets, but Whitehall didn’t go without a fight. The Norse rebounded to win both the third and fourth sets by identical 25-21 scores, forcing a deciding fifth set. Augusta got back on track, however, winning the final set 15-7.
Youngbauer filled the stat sheet again for the Norse, leading the team with 17 kills while also registering two service aces and 18 digs – both the second-highest marks on the team.
The Norse had 14 aces in the match, Sierra Kierstyn led the team with three while Wurzer, Koepke and Sonsalla all had two. Three different players had one each. Kierstyn was also a force at the net with 11 kills, while Olivia Killian had nine and Sonsalla finished with eight. Kopeke led the team with a season-high 37 assists.
Wurzer had 25 digs while Koepke added 17 and Brinna Goplin totaled 16.
