The #5 (2A) Aplington-Parkersburg volleyball team will look to take another step toward a state tournament appearance when it hosts Lake Mills in a 2A Region 5 semifinal Monday. It’ll air on 104.9 KLMJ.
The Falcons (34-6) enter with the momentum of a 3-0 win over Ogden in last week’s regional quarterfinal, where they gave up no more than 10 points in a set and gave up just three kills to the opponent. They’ll look for cleaner serves after committing 11 errors in the match.
“Serving aggressively is a big one, but then we gotta have a high percentage of serves with that,” Head Coach Candace Kleespies says. “If you don’t feel comfortable giving pace, then we’ve gotta position really, really well with our serve. We gotta pull them out of some of their sets that they run in serve receive as much as possible. And then just getting hands on the couple hitters that we talked about to at least slow down that ball for our defense, and then just putting the ball away. The great part about our team is, I feel like every night, a different hitter steps up. Bella [Buseman] mixing up that offense as much as possible is gonna be big for us.”
Lake Mills (21-14) swept Belmond-Klemme 3-0 at home in Wednesday’s quarterfinal, but faced a much closer battle. Three players have recorded better than two kills per set, led by Avery Eastvold with 2.5.
Lake Mills won the last meeting between the programs, a 3-0 sweep in the 2020 regional semifinal.
Pregame coverage will begin at 6:40 p.m., followed by the first serve at 7:00 with Jon Mohwinkle on the call. The winner will advance to Wednesday’s regional final against either #12 (2A) Sumner-Fredericksburg or Osage.
Candace Kleespies pregame interview:
