HAWKS FIGHT TO THE END WITH NO. 7 EAGLES IN CONFERENCE OPENER WEDNESDAY NIGHT

NORFOLK, Neb. – The Northeast Community College volleyball team played host to their conference opener Wednesday night at the Cox Activities Center in Norfolk as they battled No. 7 Kirkwood Community College. The Hawks dropped the ICCAC showdown by a final score of 3-1.

Northeast (7-3, 0-1 ICCAC) struggled out of the gate in the contest as they fell in the first set 25-15, but they quickly made adjustments and got things rolling to take set two 25-22. Katy Jones (Hartington, Neb.) had 26 digs while Shaylyn Safranek (Merna, Neb.) tallied 12 kills against the Eagles. Kirkwood took set three before a competitive set four was won 26-24 by the Eagles. The Hawks fought all the way to the wire with the nationally ranked Kirkwood squad and will now set their sights to an intrastate match with Southeast Community College on Friday night.

STAT SHEET:

Kills: Shaylyn Safranek (Merna, Neb.) 12

Blocks: Avery Couch (David City, Neb.) 3, Mya Hedstrom (O'Neill, Neb.) 2, Alexa Cunningham (Wausa, Neb.) 2

Ace Serves: Mya Hedstrom 2

Digs: Katy Jones (Hartington, Neb.), Jayden Bestenlehner (Omaha, Neb.) 16, Shaylyn Safranek 10

Assists: Shaylyn Safranek 20

HEAR FROM THE HAWKS COACH:

Head Volleyball Coach Amanda Schultze on what the competitive match with the No. 7 Eagles showed her team:

"It showed us how good we can be," Schultze said. "If we just fix some little mistakes that were made. We have to fix the errors. We can't be out of rotation and not know who our next server is. We just can't make those errors."

Schultze on how her team will use the day between their next match in Lincoln:

"We will get in the gym and work on some blocking stuff," Schultze said. "Just some out of system balls that we need to be worked on. We are excited to go and play in Lincoln this year. I just hope we learned from what happened in this game and know how good we can be and run with that."

UP NEXT:

The Hawks will stay in the state of Nebraska and will compete with Southeast Community College at 6 p.m. Friday in Lincoln, Nebraska.

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