LINCOLN – For the second day in a row, the Overton volleyball team played in a five set thriller in the state tournament. Unlike Friday, the Eagles couldn’t pull off the fifth set win, falling to Howells-Dodge Saturday morning in the D2 state championship match. The Jaguars won 25-16, 24-26, 22-25, 25-23, 15-12.
Overton grabbed a lead midway through the first set, but a strong outside attack from Howells-Dodge proved to be too much for the Eagles. The Eagles used their own strong offensive attack in the second and third sets to grab a 2-1 set lead in the match. A back-and-forth fourth set saw the Jaguars hold off the Eagles to force a fifth set. Howells-Dodge grabbed a 5-0 lead to start the fifth set, but Overton would make a late rally, however, the Jaguars would hold off the late surge from the Eagles.
Grace Baumert led Howells-Dodge with a dominating 42 kills. Natalie Pieper finished with 12 kills and Carly Bayer finished with nine kills and three ace serves. The Jaguars hit. 182 in the match and finished with 30 errors. JoLee Ryan led Overton with 28 kills. Natalie Wood had 21 kills and one ace serve. As a team, the Eagles hit .150 and committed 31 errors.
Howells-Dodge won their second straight state championship. They also won in Class D1 in 2021. It’s the first state runner-up finish for Overton. They return everyone next year.
Listen to the match below.
Source: Regional Sports
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