Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – After using late rallies to overcome slow starts in each of the first two sets West Branch had one goal for its third set against River Valley Conference rival Regina on Tuesday.

“Our whole goal in the third set to start off strong right away,” West Branch sophomore Lexi Klinkkammer said. “We obviously didn’t do that.”

Rather than jumping to a quick lead in the third set West Branch fell into an early deficit and never led in a 25-21 loss that extended the match.

The Bears made sure they got the start they wanted in the fourth set.

West Branch scored the first five points of the fourth set and never let Regina get closer than four points on its way to a 25-18, 25-15, 21-25, 25-13 win over the Regals in an RVC South Division matchup in West Branch.

“Regina is always a big rival for us and we just had to take control in that fourth set right from the start,” Klinkkamer said. “The fourth set we had to bear down and start off right away and get going.”

Kaiya Luneckas had a match-high 17 kills and Klinkkammer added 14 and six ace serves as West Branch improved to 12-6 on the season and 2-2 in RVC South Division play with the win.

Regina (2-14, 1-3) was the first team to 10 in each of the first two sets but couldn’t hold leads while falling into a hole that proved too deep to dig out of.

“We kind of started off slow but throughout the match we started to gain energy and momentum and that just helped us get on runs and made us play a lot better,” Luneckas said. “It was a little bit rough at the start of sets sometimes but we pushed through it and that’s what matters.”

Regina led 12-10 in the opening set but West Branch scored 11 of the next 13 points on its way to a 25-18 win.

In the second set the Regals led 13-7 before West Branch unleashed a 13-0 run behind the serving of Klinkkamer.

Klinkkammer started the run with a kill and then had four of her six ace serves during the 13-0 spurt that started a 18-2 Bear run to end the set.

“You just have to start by making sure you get the serve in and once you get a few in you get more confidence built up and you can go spot to spot and make it a little tougher on them,” Klinkkamer said. “I thought that run kind of changed the match.”

Regina rebounded to win the third set snapping an 11-all tie with a 3-0 run to take a 14-11 lead it would never give up.

Lily Simpson had eight of her team-high 11 kills in the third set as Regina kept the match alive.

“The third set we just came on a little too late,” West Branch coach Loren Hammerand said. “In the second we had that run and we got them but you can’t spot them like we did in the third they are too good to spot them.”

The third set loss seemed to energize the Bears.

West Branch started the fourth set on an 8-1 run that featured two kills from sophomore Delaynie Luneckas.

Back-to-back ace serves by Klinkkammer pushed the lead to 15-4 and Regina never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.

“The third set we knew that wasn’t how we could play, we knew we could play better,” Kaiya

Luneckas said. “The fourth set we wanted to show how we could play.”

West Branch   25  25  21  25

Regina               18  15  25  13

West Branch

(Kills-aces-blocks)

Lexie Peak 1-1-0, Alex Poppen 0-4-0, Nicki Henson 1-0-0, Chloe Pence 2-1-0, Iva Senio 3-0-0, Lexi Klinkkammer 14-6-1, Delaynie Luneckas 3-0-1, Kaiya Luneckas 17-0-1, Jaclyn Bloem 5-1-0, Team 46-13-3.

Assists – Nicki Henson 37

Regina

(Kills-aces-blocks)

Nola Murhammer 1-4-0, Hope Simpson 2-1-0, Elly Gahan 0-2-2, Lily Simpson 11-0-2, Annie Gahan 5-0-3, Maya Kerschen 10-0-0, Team 29-7-7.

Assists – Hannah Brandt 18, Allison Dillon 2, Elly Gahan 1

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