Tigers fall to Cyclones in tournament semifinals

RED OAK — The Red Oak Tigers volleyball team was knocked out in the semifinals by the Harlan Cyclones at the Red Oak Volleyball Tournament on Saturday.

Harlan defeated the Tigers, 25-21 and 25-21, in the championship semifinal. The Cyclones went on to win the tournament title by defeating Abraham Lincoln.

“I think we saw some of the best competition we’ve seen this year,” Tigers Head Coach Angie Montgomery said.

Gabi French, who was named to the all-tournament team, finished the match with 10 kills, 10 digs and four blocks (all assists).

“I thought we just lost focus,” Montgomery said. “We got real scattered at times. We’re not usually a team that panics under those kind of situations, but we’ll be ready for them next time.”

Hannah Day and Andrea Miller each had four kills. Miller was tied with Adrienne Mahoney for six blocks (all assists).

The Tigers had 27 blocks total, with Blomstedt responsible for nine of them (two solo).

The match was former Red Oak Activities Director/Dean of Students Angie Spangenberg’s first match against Red Oak as the head volleyball coach for Harlan.

“It was a good day for us,” Spangenberg said. “As young as we are, we lacked experience, but it’s really good for us to play and play good teams.”

Spangenberg resigned from Red Oak High School in March to accept the Principal position at Harlan Community Middle School, to go along with the Head Volleyball Coach position at Harlan’s high school at Harlan’s high school.

“I tried to just focus on what our kids had to do today,” Spangenberg said. “And that was compete at a tournament and not think about where we were at you kno. Red Oak means a lot to me.”

Montgomery said the team wanted to play against Harlan.

“I’d rather go down swinging against a good team like them,” she said. “We moved the ball around well at times, but that’s something we need to work on, establishing the quick attack continuously.”

Red Oak reached the semifinals by winning two of their three pool matches. Their lone loss came against Abraham Lincoln. The Tigers won the first game, but lost the next two

French had eight kills, 10 digs and three blocks (all assists). Mahoney had 12 assists, while Maddie Holmgren had 11.

“We had too many missed serves,” Montgomery said. “We need to just make sure we’re taking care of our business. We can’t afford to miss serves, especially against a good team like that.”

Red Oak’s first win was against the Creston Panthers, 21-9 and 21-8. Grace Blomstedt led the Tigers with six kills out of seven attack attempts. The freshman also had two blocks, along with Mahoney.

The Tigers defeated Denison-Schleswig for their other win in pool play, 21-14 and 21-16. French once again led the Tigers in kills with eight out of 17 attack attempts. Red Oak had 17 blocks in the match, with Blomstedt responsible for seven of them (one solo).

Last Tuesday, the Tigers defeated the Atlantic Trojanns, 3-1.

Red Oak won the first game 25-10. They had a lead in the second, but the Trojanns won game two 25-23.

The Tigers held on to win games three and four by a score of 25-22.

French had a season high against the Trojanns in kills and digs with 21 kills and 20 digs. Day also had a season high as she recorded 11 kills on 25 attempts.

Miller and Holmgren had a season high in blocks with seven each (one solo for each). Holmgren also had 20 assists and 14 digs.
Mahoney had a season high in assists with 26.

Red Oak has one match this week, as they head north to Carroll to face off against Kuemper Catholic on Tuesday night.

Kuemper Catholic is coming off a 3-0 win against Creston, last Tuesday.