River Ridge wins Lancaster Invitational

By A.J. Gates

A 3-0 sweep by visiting Shullsburg last Tuesday night, dropped coach Dianne Langmeier’s River Ridge volleyball team to a Six Rivers West conference record of 0-3.

The Timberwolves lost the first two sets to the Miners by scores of 25-13 and 25-15, and despite leading in the third set, 10-9, couldn’t avoid the sweep with a 25-19 loss.

“I feel we did have some positives that came out of the match with our serving and blocking,” said coach Langmeier. “As a team, the girls only missed three serves in the match and we had some nice blocks throughout the match. We will continue to work on fewer spiking errors and block coverage.”

Leading the Timberwolves on Tuesday night was Reghan Zinkle, who put down a team-high eight kills to go along with four blocks and one service ace.

Erin Adrian chipped in four kills and four blocks, while Hailey Kramer and Alix Goeke each had three kills.

Mallory Crubel dished out a team-high 16 assists, while Josey Drone came away with a team-high 14 digs. Emily Tesar led the team with two ace serves.

Competing at last Saturday’s Lancaster Invite, the Timberwolves finished third of four teams in their pool, but then came back to claim the championship.

In pool play, River Ridge went 1-2 with losses to Viroqua and Kickapoo, and a 2-1 victory over Shullsburg.

Taking on the No. 2 seed team from Lancaster in their first match of tournament play, the Timberwolves defeated the Flying Arrows 2-1 to set up a rematch with Viroqua, which they also defeated, 2-0.

In the championship match against Fennimore, coach Langmeier’s squad suffered a 25-18 loss in the first set, but came back to win the next two, 25-21 and 15-12.

Reghan Zinkle led River Ridge with 35 kills to go along with eight blocks and 39 digs. Mallory Crubel dished out a team-high 53 assists, while Josey Drone had a whopping 86 digs to lead the team and Alix Goeke a team-high nine blocks.