Rams sweep Red Oak in H-10 volleyball

The Glenwood girls overcame a sluggish start to rally for a 25-20, 25-10, 25-11 win over Red Oak in a Hawkeye 10 Conference volleyball sweep in Glenwood Thursday.
The Class No. 6 ranked Rams (15-2) trailed 12-9 in the first set before warming up to win going away in the dominant victory
“We’re  kind of been characteristically slow starters right now,” said Glenwood coach Paula Carman. “We’re not sure the why of it, we’re trying to problem solve it, reflecting on the mental aspect of it. I think we might have been a little nervous in our home opener in front of our crowd and a big student section.
“I think we were amped up and we played a little tight. I don’t think we changed much (scheme wise); we just took care of the ball systematically.”
The Rams hit a blistering .313 with 36 kills in the match. Ilsa Kemling led a balanced hitting attack with 12 kills. Kaylee Wray added eight and Charley Hernandez eight.
“That’s something we’ve been focusing on,” Carman said. “We’re not the tallest group that you’re going to see on the court every night and in that sense, we have to keep a well-balanced attack so we keep blockers running, keep defenses moving. I think we’re establishing that.”
With 17 games in the book, Carman feels her team is still seeking their peak. And that might be a good thing.
“There’s a lot of little components to our game that we want to tweak and adjust,” Carman said. “I think there’s things we try when we come out offensively and don’t get a chance to execute them so we’re trying to keep progressing there. I think we have a lot of clean-up to do in transitions. Hopefully we can get those hitting at the right time.”
Red Oak (5-9) struggled to finish at the net, hitting just .22 and recording 19 kills.
Jocelyn O’Neal led the way for seven kills. Keely Jones added six kills.
Alexis Joint paced the offense with eight set assists. She also added 11 digs.