Emmetsburg, Ia (Northwest Iowa Now) – The Class 3A Region 3 Semifinals was in Emmetsburg Monday night as the #2 seed E-Hawks hosted the #3 seed Central Lyon.
There wasn’t a lot of action at the net in set 1, though Calista Joyce picked up 4 kills for the E-Hawks. Emmetsburg ultimately took advantage of Central Lyon Mistakes enough to come away with a 25-19 win.
Set 2 was a back-and-forth affair. Elli Hoefert piled up 4 kills for the Lions, including the set winner which gave Central Lyon the 27-25 edge, tying us at 1 set a piece.
In Set 3, Emmetsburg rolled. It was back and forth early, but the E-Hawks used a 6-point run to go up 14-7 with Sloan Rodemeyer on the serve and didn’t look back as they put up a 25-14 win.
For Set 4, Central Lyon got off to an 8-2 start and piled up a lead as high as 9 at one point. Emmetsburg wasn’t getting a lot of clean hits or blocks in the set, and Elsie Oedekoven picked up some key kills down the stretch for the Lions. Emmetsburg would storm back though, taking the lead late at one point, but Central Lyon got the edge 26-24 and sent us to a deciding 5th set.
Set 5 saw Calista Joyce rack up another 5 kills, giving her 20 on the night. Emmetsburg coach Daniell Auten said Joyce and the E-Hawks really executed the game plan when they needed to.
Emmetsburg came away with a 15-9 win in Set 5 and took the match 3 sets to 2.
Central Lyon finishes up their season with a 15-11 regular mark with a 2-6 Siouxland record that had them finish 7th.
Emmetsburg advances to the Class 2A Region 3 Championship match where they will play Hinton in Orange City at MOC-Floyd Valley High School. Coach Auten says her team will need to play a clean game against a strong Blackhawk group on Wednesday.
News Radio 102.5 and AM 1240 KICD will bring you the coverage from Orange City Wednesday night. The winner of that contest advances to the Class 2A State Tournament in Coralville at Xtream Arena.

