Colman-Egan falls to #2 Warner in quarterfinals at State

By Chris Schad
For the Enterprise

SIOUX FALLS – The Colman-Egan Hawks had a resilient effort as the seventh seed, but despite taking second-seeded Warner to five sets, C-E came up short in a quarterfinals matchup at the Class B State Tournament at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center on Thursday night.
“I think we started off a little rocky and while we won one of the early sets, some of our key players weren’t really on for us,” C-E coach Abigail Hemmer said. “It made us struggle and get down early and we had to fight back.”
The Hawks hung with the Monarchs early in the first set until Warner took a 17-12 lead into a C-E timeout. When the teams returned to the court, the Hawks came out with plenty of energy rattling off seven straight points to take a 19-17 lead and forcing set point at 24-21. While Warner rallied with three straight points to tie the set at 24-24, the Hawks held on for a 27-25 win and an early advantage in the match.
But while C-E did well to shake off a slow start in the first set, they weren’t as lucky as the match wore on. Warner was in control throughout the second set on the way to a 25-13 victory and jumped out to an 8-3 early in the third set. But a late rally at the end of the third set helped the Hawks make the final score competitive, losing 25-20 and establishing momentum for the fourth set.
“I think we had some girls really step up for us and that helped a lot,” Hemmer said of the rally to end the third set. “They’re the ones that aren’t usually our go-getter girls but then we started kind of lacking. We weren’t moving our feet and kind of slow getting to the balls. So we really emphasized moving better in the last couple of sets and they did a much better job beginning at the end of the third set.”

Warner and C-E battled evenly in the fourth set but the Hawks pulled away to win 25-22 and set up a fifth set. Warner took a 6-3 lead in the decisive set but C-E closed the gap to 11-10. When the Hawks took a 13-11 lead, Hemmer had an ultimatum to her team similar to the one she issued in their SoDak 16 win over Edgemont.
“I just told them now is the time you’ve got to do it,” Hemmer said. “We needed to be smart and get after everything, but we just were a little disorganized. We weren’t able to run our offense and that’s what kind of killed us.”
While the Hawks scored a point, Warner answered to draw match point and ultimately came away with a 15-13 win in the fifth set and a trip to the state semifinals.
Brynlee Landis led the Hawks with 16 kills while Elaina Rhode also finished in double-digits with 11 kills. Finley Luze had seven and Anna Zwart had six kills.
Kaylee Voelker finished with a team-high 25 assists. Finley Luze also had 16 assists for the Hawks.
From the serving line, Savanna Schmidt had two aces for C-E. Rhode and Finley Luze each had one ace.
The Hawks had three plates with 20 or more digs with Rhode posting 23 digs, Finley Luze racking up 21 digs and Presley Luze finishing with 20 digs. Landis and Voelker each had 14 digs.
Zwart finished with seven total blocks. Landis had three, Rhode, Voelker and Michoen Williamson each had two blocks. Finley Luze had one block.
Kyleigh Schopp led Warner with 23 kills. Reagan Wood had 20 assists. Jaycee Jung, Jordyn Jensen, Libby Scepaniak and Wood each had two aces.
Jensen finished with 23 digs and Schopp had six total blocks for the Monarchs.
The loss dropped the Hawks to 24-6 on the season and will send them to the consolation bracket for a semifinal matchup against Gayville-Volin at 12:45 p.m. on Friday.
While the loss was disappointing, the consolation bracket isn’t an unfamiliar situation for a team that won the consolation championship last season and Hemmer made sure her team continued to be focused on finishing the season strong after the match.
“I told them that this tournament is obviously different because it’s not lose and go home,” Hemmer said. “You’re guaranteed three games, so the first loss sucks but now you have to set new goals, go out and get that consolation trophy to end the season on a high note.”