By Bruce Karnick

The ladies had two games last week. The first was Tuesday against a very talented Hill-Murray squad.

“We started off really strong and got our blocks up early against their toughest hitters,” Coach Anne Korenchen said after the game.

“We were so prepared for the tough swings that once they started tipping and rolling the ball, we struggled to pick up the short stuff,” Korenchen added.

Hill-Murray’s passing and defense were too much for the Raiders who struggled to get the hits to fall on their side of the net. “The tough thing about seeing box scores is that it doesn’t always truly reflect how hard a team played. In game two, we just couldn’t win the rallies, but we played hard every point,” Korenchen added.

Hastings would lose in three straight sets.19-25, 8-25 and 12-25.

Tartan was the next opponent on Thursday night. Thursday would go the distance in sets where Hastings would lose 8-15 in the fifth set. Set one would be won by Hastings, 25-23, They would lose set two 21-25, lose set three 19-25, then win set four 25-20.

“We had some stretches where we struggled and lost too many consecutive points in a row but controlled the net and rallied back to get back into it. Overall, I was very pleased with our performance, I think that’s the best we’ve played as a team all season. We fought hard and didn’t give up, even when we were down,” Korenchen said after the Tartan game.

The Raiders will travel to Henry Sibley on November fourth, then travel to South St. Paul on November seventh then Simley on November tenth. They will finally host a home game on November twelfth against North St. Paul. Hastings Community Television has been broadcasting some of the volleyball games on their Facebook live channel, check out their page for times.

#20 Macy Frandrup spikes one into a Tartan blocker for the point while #11 Lilly Nuytten and Courtney Daler prepare for the block to come back on the Hastings side of the net. Photo by Bruce Karnick

Raiders #1 Ali Gronquist spikes the ball while libero, Courtney Daler (Gold Jersey) and #11 Lily Nuytten observe. Behind Gronquist is #16 Megan Meyer and #25 Autumn McClintock, they are setting up to save a possible block. The point did score on the spike. Photo by Bruce Karnick