RIVERSIDE

Breaking the seal on conference play, the Huskies hosted the Ravens in a Southeast Iowa Super Conference showdown that went the distance.  

Avenging a loss they suffered at the hands of Hillcrest at the Keota tournament, Highland prevailed on their home court in a competitive five set match (21-25, 25-22, 19-25, 25-23, 15-13) on Sept. 5. 

A back-and-forth affair, both teams traded sets until Highland strung together wins in the fourth and fifth to end the game in their favor. For their Huskies this win improved their record to 3-3 and for the Ravens, their first loss of the season brings their record to 3-1. 

Hillcrest had four players notch six kills or more with Niva Helmuth leading the way with eight. It was another big night for setter Claire Withrow, as the junior dished out 44 assists.
On the defensive side, it was standout senior Malia Yoder who ended the night with the most digs (22) with fellow senior Lydia Beachy having the second most (20). 

The Huskies had 39 kills on offense and leading all players with 10 kills was Adeline Krotz. Teammate Hailey Brun was right behind her with eight kills of her own. Helping those kills come to fruition, Laney Skelton was Highland’s assist leader with 29. 

Krotz was also a force on defense, tallying a team high five blocks. Also lending a helping hand on defense was Lilly Barre who led the team with 29 digs. 

Highland 3, Keota 1

In their second home game of the year, the Huskies turned away Keota in four sets (25-19, 25-23, 26-28,25-18) to pick up their fourth win of the young season on Sept. 9.

This was Highland’s first win over Keota since 2020 and leading the way in the win was senior Adeline Krotz with 11 kills, marking the second straight game she reached double-digit kills.  

  Senior Laney Skelton continued to showcase her prowess of generating kills for her teammates by leading the Huskies with 27 assists. On defense sophomore Hailey Brun notched a team high 10 digs and she also had an impressive eight kills on offense. 

Up next for Highland (4-3) is a home game against the Louisa-Muscatine Falcons (0-4) on Sept. 12.