Coach Emily Hiscocks says the past week pretty much tells the story of the Lion’s season.
“We can play every team in the conference close, but when it comes down to winning the match, we have troubles finding the go-to players,” said Hiscocks following her team’s 3-0 loss to Fort Dodge St. Edmond Tuesday, Oct. 2.
The Lions couldn’t have made the match much closer. They dropped the first two games 23-25, 23-25. Then, the third game got away, 19-25.
The Lion offense was lead by Kara Mathis and Allison Schaefer, both with 23 attacks apiece and eight and seven kills respectively. Ellen Pritchard had a team-high 26 digs in the match.
The Lion service game was strong, paced by Schaefer going 10/10 and Macey Hansen and Breanne Mumm each at 7/7. Torrie Hansen made good on 13 of 14 serve attempts and Mathis was 10/11.

C-G 3, CL 0
The Lions lost their second North Central Conference game of the week when they traveled to Clarion-Goldfield Thursday, Oct. 4. The match was similar to the loss at St. Ed’s, with the Lions battling hard, but falling in three straight games.
The Cowgirls took the opening game 25-10, then held on for a Clear Lake challenge. They took games two and three by scores of 25-22 and 25-20.
“We were flat at the beginning of the match and could never really regain our focus in game one,” said Coach Hiscocks. “The girls fought back int he next two games, but we just came up short.”
Allison Schaefer recorded nine kills in the match with 18 attacks. Macey Hansen had 16 attacks with three kills, and Kara Mathis had 22 attacks and four kills. Mathis had a team-high 21 digs. Ellen Pritchard and Alexis King kept the ball in play with 20 and 15 digs respectively.
Schaefer and Kristin Weigel were 8/8 serving and Torrie Hansen was 6/6. Other leaders included Breanne Mumm going 9/10 and Macey Hansen at 9/11. The Lions served at 90 percent in the match.

Mason City Invitational
The Lions posted a 1-3 record at the Mason City Invitational Saturday, Oct. 6.
Clear Lake opened the tourney with two losses to Decorah (16-21, 7-21) and Fort Dodge (15-21, 10-21). They rebounded in their third match to defeat Newton 2-1. The Lions opened that match with a 21-15 win, then stumbled 15-21 before fighting back to win the third game 18-16.
Allison Schaefer put down nine kills and had 22 attacks. Ellen Pritchard made 21 digs, with Erika Lovik, Breanne Mumm and Kara Mathis each getting 10. Schaefer was 11/11 serving. Torrie Hansen was 12/14 at the service line and Mumm and Kara Mathis each went 7/8. Pritchard was 8/9.
The Lions opened strong in their fourth game of the tourney, but fell to Central Springs, 22-24. The Panthers dominated in the second game, 21-9, to get a win.