On Wednesday night the Iowa Lakes volleyball team hosted their first conference game of the 2018 season. The Lakers defeated the Ellsworth Community College Panthers with a 3-1 victory. Starting extremely slow with multiple hitting errors, the Lakers fell short in the first set of the night. Losing by three points, 22-25.

After a quick team meeting between the first and second set, the Lakers rattled off a win in sets two and three fairly quickly. Once Iowa Lakes took set two, 25-18, they showed new life and quickly closed the third set 25-10. However, the fourth set was a bit of a challenge for ILCC.

The Lakers got down quickly in the fourth set trailing 2-5. The gap was widened as the set continued with ILCC trailing by as many as 7 points late in the set. A 5-point run by ILCC forced the panthers to call a time out. Iowa Lakes still trailing 20-22.

After the time out, the Lakers were able to tie up the set at 22. A quick kill and an ace by Ellsworth put them up again on the scoreboard 22-24. Lakers called a time out. After two low tempo sets by Brittany Butler to Keyeria Tyeskie and Katie Kracht the Lakers were able to tie up the set again at 24, and again at 25-25. The panthers would not score again in the fourth set.

A hitting error by Ellsworth gave the Lakers their first lead of the fourth set. A tough serve by Sophomore Katie Kracht forced the panthers to send over a free ball. Ariel Bozonie passed an exceptional on target ball to Brittany Butler who shot out a quick ball to the pin to Freshman outside Janya Johnson, who took her best swing of the night and drilled a ball into the middle of the court. The Lakers narrowly escaped with a 27-25 victory over the Ellsworth Panthers.

The Lakers will continue their season Wednesday, September 19th with a conference match up against Hawkeye Community College @ 7:00pm in Waterloo, IA.

Photo attached: Keyeria Tyeskie and Janya Johnson

MEDIA: For more information, please contact Head Women's Volleyball Coach Hunter Porter by office at 712-362-8375.