It was the final Parent’s Night for three seniors at Falls City on Tuesday but just the first Parent’s Night for the majority of the rest of the roster. A young Falls City team battled Elmwood-Murdock for a good portion of Tuesday night’s clash but the Knights would prove too much for the Tigers squad. Falls City would win the first set 25-16 before dropping three straight after that (16-25, 13-25, 18-25) and the Knights would head home with their sixth win of the season.

In the first set, Falls City was picking up every attack the Knights were throwing their way and that led to multiple big swings for the Tigers. Falls City came out hot and jumped out to a 4-0 lead on a big kill by Freshman Liv Buckminster.  The Knights would battle back and tie the set at six before a run by the Tigers was capped off by a Bella Johansen kill on a long rally.

The Tigers would extend that lead to 17-10 on an ace serve by Johansen before Elmwood-Murdock battled back to make the score 20-16. That’s all the closer the Knights would get in set one though as multiple kills by Freshman Tessa Gossman and Johansen would give the Tigers match point at 24-16. Freshman Hallie Young had a strong serving run during the final stretch and capped it off with an ace serve as the Tigers took the first set.

The teams would trade punches in set two. Though the Tigers never led in the set, they did tie things up at 4-4 and 8-8 before a three point run on the back of Elmwood-Murdock Senior Annie Backemeyer’s serve would put the Knights up 11-8. Things snowballed from there a bit for the Tigers who would find themselves down 17-9. A big block by Buckminster would cut the deficit to 17-11, but the Tigers would get no closer and the Knights would pull away for a 25-16 win in set two.

In set three, the Knights jumped on Falls City early and never took their foot off the gas forcing a Falls City timeout at 10-5 and 22-10. A net violation would give the Knights a win in set three 25-13. The snowball continued into the start of the fourth set where the Knights would come out of the gate 4-0 and would force another Tiger timeout at 13-4. A strong serving stretch that included an ace by Gossman would cut the Knights lead to 13-7. The Knights would stretch the lead to 10 but the Tigers battled cutting a 10 point deficit down to 21-14 and 24-18 on back-to-back Ella Glathar kills. The Knights would score the final point of the night to win the fourth and final set 25-18.

For a young Falls City team, the roller coaster of a season continues. Of the seven Falls City starters including the Libero, four of them are Freshman while a fifth is a Sophomore. Falls City rolled out a front row of Freshman, Freshman, Sophomore to start the game. The experience is great for a group of young players looking to find their footing. However the inconsistency will be there at times as was the case tonight from about midway through the 2^nd set to midway through the 4^th set.

Coach Haines was proud of that first set noting that “when you have this many young players, you never know what your quite gunna get every single night, but that’s a team I know we can be.” When it comes to the inconsistency, Haines notes that it’s a learning process for everyone – including herself. She said, “I have learned that I need to kind of let them work through things … I’ve got to let them work through things but also give them some things that they can work on and focus on one thing at a time.”

For a team with just three upper classman on the roster, you can definitely see a bright future in the years to come. But the Tigers aren’t ready to look ahead to next season just yet. Senior Carlea Dunkhas told me the goal is still the state tournament THIS year. Knowing how much growth happens over the course of a season, and knowing where this group of young players is already at – that might not be as much of a stretch as some might think.

Falls City has faced a tough schedule so far as their four losses have come to teams with a combined record of 18-5. They are taking care of business in games they should be competitive in. Where their season goes will be dependent on whether they can start winning some of the games against stronger competition. Falls City continues their season on Thursday when they host a triangular with Pawnee City and Sterling.