WHA beats Laporte in 4 sets behind strong serve game

Both Walker-Hackensack-Akeley and Laporte served at 90 percent in Thursday night’s showdown in Walker, but the reason the hosts won in four sets were the 14 more ace serves they had.

WHA easily took the first set 25-16, but Laporte held on to take the second 25-23. In the critical third set, WHA easily won 25-16 and held-on in the fourth 25-19.

The Wolves also put-away 41 kills to Laporte’s 33, had three more blocks and 18 fewer errors.

Several WHA players had fine games with Kylea Ludwig, Aubrey Morrison, Makenna Oelschlager, Addie Schneider and Katryn Smith each having three aces. Oelschlager (14-14) was perfect on serve, Smith (19-20) and Avery Morrison (15-16) only had one bad serve.

Oelschlager also led with 14 kills, Avery Morrison had 12, Ludwig seven and Brooklyn Hanson had three. Addie Schneider finished with 37 assists.

On the defensive side, Laraya Lynch had two solo blocks, Ludwig and Hanson one each, while Aubrey Morrison led with 26 digs. Avery Morrison finished with 18 digs and Oelschlager had 13.

Leading Laporte was Logan Bauman with 12 kills, Ila McDougle had eight, Kalli Miller six and Ruby Nelson four.

Kate Shadrick finished with 28 assists, Macey Morris led with 17 digs, and Nelson had one solo block and assisted on two others.

Leading the ’Cats serving were Izabel Padget (12-12) and Quinn Nelson (5-5) both perfect, while Shadrick (14-15) only missed one.

Padgett also had 14 digs and Miller 10.

This week the Wolves travel to Swanville and host Nevis, while Laporte is at Sebeka and Clearbrook-Gonvick, and competes at the Bigfork Tournament.