Central suffers Senior day volleyball loss
PELLA — Despite having more kills than Monmouth College, the Central College volleyball team lost in straight sets Saturday afternoon 29-27, 25-23, 25-23.
Central ends the regular season with a 15-12 overall mark, the Fighting Scots moved to 15-13. Saturday also was the last home game of the season for the Dutch, serving as Senior Day for the five seniors on the roster.
“I wish we could have gotten a win for our seniors,” Czipri said. “They have been through a lot and put so much time into this program.”
Krissa Larson (senior, outside hitter, Waverly, Waverly-Shell Rock HS) led the Dutch with 13 kills while Landry Luhring (senior, libero, Grundy Center) had a team-high 27 digs. Hallie Uhlig (senior, middle hitter, Colorado Springs, Colo., Palmer Ridge HS) had six kills and three blocks. Ruth Hruska (senior, outside hitter, Brookfield, Ill., Riverside-Brookfield HS) chipped in a pair of kills and Sydney Burgardt (senior, middle hitter, Britt, West Hancock HS) started the third set, securing a dig.
“I was happy to see them all get on the stat sheet,” Czipri said. “Landry made some great defensive plays and it was cool to see Hallie come alive offensively.”
Amanda Smith (junior, setter, Tipton) had 20 assists and Adisyn Illg (junior, setter, Johnsburg, Ill.) had 15. Illg added three service assists.
Central finished in a tie for fourth place in the American Rivers Conference standings and will be the No. 5 seed in the postseason tournament. The first round of the tournament sends Central to No. 4 Dubuque on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. match.
“We have to be better going into Tuesday,” Czipri said. “I don’t know if we are playing our best volleyball right now. We are being aggressive, we just need to take care of our first contact so we can run our offense.”
