Wildcats fall to Lancers in matchup of DC’s top teams

After winning its first 12 matches, the Blair-Taylor volleyball team has hit a bit of a rough patch with four losses, including one that could’ve knocked them out of the race for the Dairyland Conference title.

Three of the losses were not in conference play as the Wildcats lost to Cashton twice at a tournament held in Cashton on Oct. 1, then fell 3-2 to Durand last week Monday. A 3-2 win over Cochrane-Fountain City on Tuesday kept the Wildcats in play for the conference title, but they were swept 3-0 by the DC’s only other undefeated team, Eau Claire Immanuel Lutheran, on Thursday. B-T defeated Rosholt, 2-1, in Wisconsin Dells on Saturday, no further information from that match was available as of press time. 

The Wildcats still have a chance at winning the DC title, but they’ll need help. B-T ends its regular season in Gilmanton on Thursday, a win would give them a final DC record of 9-1.  ECI has two conference matches remaining, they played Gilmanton on Tuesday and play at Augusta (6-5, 5-2) on Thursday. B-T’s overall record is 16-4. 

B-T    25 20 26 19 14

DUR  19 25 24 25 16

The Wildcats had a 2-1 lead, but they couldn’t close the match out.

The teams split the first two sets before B-T pulled out a two-point win in the third. Durand tied the match with a win in the fourth set and the teams went back and forth in the fifth, but the Panthers pulled out a 16-14 win.

Lindsay Steien led a balanced B-T attack at the net with 14 kills, while adding three blocks and tying for the team lead with four service aces. Kierstyn Kindschy had 11 kills and a team-high four blocks, while Andrea Waldera had 10 kills and two blocks.

B-T had 13 aces in the match, Abby Thompson also had four, while Faith Olson had two, Lexi Lofgren, Madison Goodbear and Paige Kelly all had one. 

Thompson and Kelly tied for the team-high with 36 digs. B-T was active defensively, managing 151 digs – compared to 81 for Durand – as Steien had 24, Lofgren, 21 and Goodbear, 17. 

Goodbear led the team with 24 set assists.

B-T      25 20 18 25 15

C-FC   16 25 25 20 12

The Wildcats trailed 2-1, but pulled away in the fourth set then won a close fifth to get the 3-2 win.

B-T controlled the first set with a nine-point win, but the Pirates won the second by five points and the third by seven. The Wildcats needed to rebound and they did just that with a five-point win in the fourth set before eking out a three-point win in the fifth. 

Waldera had a big night at the net with 17 kills and four blocks, leading the team in both categories. Steien and Kindschy both had 15 kills, the latter added three blocks and the former had one. Goodbear had 30 assists to lead the team.

Kelly was able to keep a number of volleys alive with 67 digs, while Thompson added 54; Goodbear, 25; Lofgren, 18; Steien, 15 and Waldera, 11. 

Steien led the team with three aces, both Goodbear and Thompson had two, Lofgren, Olson and Kindschy all had one.

ECI     25 25 25

B-T     16 18 17

The Wildcats had a chance to make the match interesting, but the Lancers went on a run and never looked back.

After dropping the first set, B-T trailed 10-5 in the second before making a run. The Wildcats scored four of the next five points and later a spike by Waldera pulled them within one at 14-13. But the Lancers scored six straight points as B-T appeared to have some issues with communication and ECI took a 20-13 lead. B-T continued to fight and pulled within five at 23-18, but ECI scored the next two points.

The Wildcats scored the first two points in the third set, but the Lancers scored seven of the next eight and eventually went ahead by 10 at 17-7. B -T fought, scoring five of the next six to make the score 18-12, but that’s as close as they’d get. 

Statistics were unavailable as of press time.