Lady Lancers dominate Lady Cougars

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

Kendall Bollenbacher, Madison Williams and McKayla Blankemeyer dominated at the net and Lincolnview rolled to a 25-10, 25-16, 25-18 straight set victory over Van Wert in the home opener for the Lady Lancers on Tuesday.

Lincolnview set the tone early, jumping out to a 7-2 lead in the first set and later leading 18-9 and scoring seven of the next eight points. It was a similar situation in the second set as the Lady Lancers led 8-3 and 13-4 on a kill by Blankemeyer.

Bollenbacher added three kills after that to boost Lincolnview’s lead to 20-8. Bollenbacher finished with a team-high 16 kills, while Williams finished with 13 kills and 21 digs.

“I thought we played very well in the first and second sets,” Lincolnview head coach JaNahn Evans said. “Kendall, Madison and McKayla really controlled the offense for us and put up some big plays and key shots.”

“They have the total package, Van Wert head coach Jeff Marbaugh said of the Lady Lancers. “You’re not going to stop one person, they have a lot of weapons and they scrap getting the ball back across and making it tough on you.”

The match was more competitive in the third set. A kill by Jaylyn Rickard gave the Lady Cougars a 3-2 advantage, their first lead of the night. Van Wert was able to stretch the lead to 8-4, before the Lady Lancers rattled off five straight points, including an ace by Bollenbacher that tied the match 8-8 and another kill by the 5-10 junior that put Lincolnview ahead 9-8.

“I thought Van Wert was very scrappy and I thought we did well in the first and second set of reading and picking up those balls,” Evans said. “In the third set maybe we sat in it a bit too much and we tried some new offensive combos so no excuses, we need to get better at anything thrown at us.”

“What I liked about that third set was the fact that we stuck,” Marbaugh said. “As long as we’re close or above we’ve been fairly consistent in making good plays and smart plays, it’s just when we drop then we don’t have that mentality of knowing we can catch up somehow.”

After four ties, the Lady Lancers put together four straight points to take the lead for good, 18-14. From there, Bollenbacher all but finished the match at the service line.

“I’m very pleased with how we played although I still think we need to back and work on some different key areas but overall, I thought my big hitters showed up, I thought Bri (Ebel) did a phenomenal job digging the ball and getting it to those hitters.”

Ebel finished with 40 assists and 22 digs.

Van Wert (0-2) is scheduled to open WBL play Thursday at Defiance and Lincolnview (1-0) is scheduled to play at Antwerp on Saturday.