FORT MADISON - Fort Madison Head Coach Kelly Knustrom was happy with the play she saw in the finals of the Southeast Conference tournament Tuesday at Fort Madison High School.
The Bloodhounds dropped two of three matches, but were in most of the games throughout the night and got some steady net play from Lauryn Helmick and Taylor Johnson.
"She's peaking at a really good time," Knustrom said of Johnson.
"She's doing a lot of good stuff. I'm sure if you asked her she'd say she's not perfect. She's a perfectionist and that's okay, but I'm super proud of the way she's playing. And Lauryn Helmick had a really good weekend and that gave her some confidence tonight."
The Hounds dropped five of six at the Durant Invititational over the weekend, but drew come confidence coming into the final week of action.
On Tuesday night the Hounds downed Mt. Pleasant in three games 22-25, 25-23, 15-11 before falling to Washington 17-25, 19-25, and then to Keokuk 22-25, 16-25.
Against the Panthers, after dropping the first game, Fort Madison trailed early in the second, but then tied things up a 10-all on an ace from Molly Knipe. Mt. Pleasant then committed four errors in a row to give the Lady Hounds a 14-10 lead.
Mt. Pleasant would work back within one at 18-17 forcing Knustrom to call a time out. The two teams would trade sideouts to about 23-21, then Aijalynn Jenkins and Johnson got back-to-back kills to make it 24-22. An attack from Dayonna Davis went wide, but a service error from the Panthers sealed the win for Fort Madison.
The Lady Hounds would jump out to a 7-5 lead in the first-to-15 tiebreaker. A kill from Helmick at 11-6 set the pace for the rest of the game and then a kill by Johnson ended the match at 15-11.
Johnson ended the night hitting 37-45 with 19 kills . Helmick was 26-32 with eight kills and Davis was 22-28 hitting with 2 kills.
Elle Ruble had four kills, Jenkins had nine and Molly Knipe was 11 of 11 with five kills.
"I told them I saw a lot of things we've been working on in practice coming around and we were doing some of those things well," Knustrom said.
"Our net play improved, where we struggled in the past with being unsure what to do when the ball is tight. Taylor won two jousts with the girl from Keokuk in that last game.
"They just got a lot more comfortable and we rep that in practice and it's exciting that's coming around."
In the second match with Washington, the Hounds worked ties with the Demons at 10-all and 13-all, but then started to drop behind before the Demons went on a 5-0 run to make it 22-16.
A couple kills from Kenializ Espinoza and Ella Greiner got Washington to 23-16, and a couple errors on the Hounds' hitting, ended the first match.
The Hounds got down as much as 9-0 in the second game as Washington won going away. The closest Fort Madison would get was 16-11 on a Johnson kill.
The third match with Keokuk was nip and tuck through the first nine points, but then the Chiefs started to pull away. Fort Madison made a 4-0 run to cut the lead to just 2 at 20-18, but the Chiefs would get the next four points on three consecutive kills by Makenna Altgilbers to make it 23-18.
Jenkins would get a kill and Johnson would put a single block on an attack to cut the lead to three. A carry call on Keokuk made it 23-22, but the Chiefs would call a time out and get the next two points for the win.
Fort Madison wouldn't make a charge in the second game falling 25-16.
Knipe and Helmick led the Hound serving with Knipe going 24 of 27 with a couple aces. Helmick was 23 of 25 with two aces. Delaney Walker was 16 of 19.
Amy Yasenchok had 27 digs and Izzy Boeding had 21 on the night. Knipe has 21 assists and Mara Smith recorded 11.
The Hounds (2-7, 2-21) play Thursday in the Mediapolis quadrangular before wrapping up the regular season. The Class 4A Region 8 First round kicks off Tuesday as the Hounds travel to Keokuk in a rematch of Tuesday's final match of the day for both team.
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