Riverside

Southeast Iowa Super Conference foes met for the first time this season as the Huskies hosted the Lady Lions on Oct. 3. This matchup also served as senior night for Highland. 

The Huskies celebrated senior night in style, defeating Lone Tree, 3-1, with final scores of 25-18, 25-21, 19-25, 25-16. 

With this win Highland (10-12) makes it three victories in a row, having defeated Hillcrest and Pekin in their last two outings. The Huskies now have a 4-2 conference record while Lone Tree (3-18) has its conference record drop to 1-6. 

Highland’s roster consists of ten seniors his year and they were all honored before the varsity game took place. 

Highland’s seniors are outside hitter Shauna Sublette, libero Kerra Longbine, middle hitter Haley Sands, outside hitter Kelsi Cerny, middle hitter Lorelei Lueck, outside hitter Sarah Burton, setter Grace Prybil, libero Madison Beeson, outside hitter Courtney Chalupa, and middle hitter Payton Brun. 

This season Highland’s lineups consisted of mostly seniors, with some juniors sprinkled but in this conference matchup the Huskies played with a lineup made up solely of seniors. 

After winning a first set where the Huskies reached 20 points before the Lady Lions reached 10 points, Highland was on the precipice of sweeping Lone Tree once they won a more competitive second set. 

Avoiding the sweep, the Lady Lions made sure the brooms stayed inactive, winning the third set by going on a 8-2 run after they tied the game at 17-17.

Squashing a potential Lone Tree comeback, the Huskies rebounded from their only dropped set of the night by winning a fourth set that saw them lead by as many as 12. 

On the night Highland’s offense was led by two Huskies who reached double digit kills, Lueck and Brun. Lueck led the team with 14 kills while Brun was not too far behind with 12 kills of her own. 

A key piece in bringing those kills to fruition was Prybil. As a team Highland had 39 assists and Pryibl led the team by contributing to 34 of those assists. 

On defense Beeson (21), Burton (21), and Longbine (11), led the way in the digs department. Chalupa served with great efficiency, ending the game with a team leading seven service aces. 

Highland 3, Louisa-Muscatine 0

Continuing to collect wins in the Southeast Iowa Super Conference, Highland went on the road and swept the Louisa-Muscatine Falcons on Oct. 5 with final scores of 25-9, 25-17, 25-12. 

For Highland this is the third time this season they’ve swept an opponent, 3-0, in a potential five set match. With this win their conference record improves to 5-2. 

Leading the Huskies in kills for the second game in a row was senior Lorelei Lueck. She ended the night with a team high 10 kills while fellow senior Sarah Burton had the second most kills with eight. 

When it came to setting up those kills, junior Laney Skelton and senior Grace Prybil accounted for 29 of Highland’s 31 assists. Prybil led the team in assists (17) and Skelton had the second most (12). 

Senior Madison Beeson finished her night with a team high 17 digs. Burton accounted for 12 digs, the second most on the team. 

Up next for Highland (12-14) will be battling the Wapello Arrows (18-13) in the first round of the Class 1A regionals on Oct. 16.