In a matchup of two conference foes, the Wolsey-Wessington Warbirds made it a clean sweep of the Patriots on Thursday night.
In set one, the Warbirds controlled the whole set by jumping out to a big lead and the Patriots could not get any runs or momentum going. The Warbirds rolled to and opening set victory by a score of 25-14.
After some regrouping in between the sets, the Patriots showed some momentum and jumped out to a five point lead. The Warbirds would come back and tie the game at 13. The Patriots took a time-out to try to stop the momentum. The two teams played point for point for a while, but Wolsey-Wessington would go on a late run and put the set away by a scored of 25-19.
The third set, was a carbon copy of the first as the Patriots got down early and could never get much offense going. Wolsey-Wessington won the third set by a score of 25-20 and winning the match 3-0.
It was a tough night offensively for the Patriots, as the Wolsey-Wessington block and defense was very effective all night. The Patriots were led by Ella Johnson with 9 kills. Katelyn Schroeder would tally 8 kills in the loss. Rebecca Huizenga chipped in 5. Lila Johnson tallied 21 assists in the loss.
The Patriots also did not get much going behind the service line as they recorded only one ace in the match.
Defensively, Schroeder and Cambree Hoekman each tallied 15 digs. Ella Johnson tallied 5 digs. Isabel Gilbert recorded 1 solo block and 2 block assists and Huizenga would tally 1 solo and 1 block assist.
The Patriots (5-3) travel to Clark on Saturday to participate in the Clark-Willow Lake Tournament. First match will be at 10:00 a.m against DeSmet. The Patriots will then follow up playing Britton-Hecla at 11:00 a.m to finish out pool play.