Crees Hoping Cyclone VB Can Find Winning Track at Nevada Invite

Crees Hoping Cyclone VB Can Find Winning Track at Nevada Invite –

(9-26-24) - The rough stretch keeps getting rougher.

Harlan Community volleyball has now lost 4 matches in a row and 7 of their last 8 after falling to Hawkeye 10 rival Red Oak on Tuesday. Cyclone Coach Elle Crees felt her team put a good fight in the loss.

“They fought hard and they played good volleyball in the first couple of sets. We just weren't able to finish and I know we've said that a ton of times, but in those scenarios, we got to be able to finish.”

Crees feels many of her team’s issues can be corrected.

“It kind of comes down to lack of energy and some communication errors. Stuff we can fix. So that's a plus. The stuff we got to fix sooner than later.”

The play of Kensley Bruck continues to improve with 6 kills against Red Oak. Crees like the positive energy she brings to the team.

“The thing with Kensley is she just wants to win bad. She's going to light a fire for her team. Kind of when we need it. And that's positive from her is that she is really stepping up and able to jump in and put the ball down when we need it.”

Hope Preston had 8 kills to lead Harlan Community to go along with 3 blocks. Red Oak was led by Jocelyn O’Neal who had 13 kills and 2 blocks.

It doesn’t get any easier for the Cyclones as they’ll participate in the Nevada tournament this Saturday. Crees believes the tougher competition should bring the best out of her players.

“It's just a great experience to be able to go up to Nevada. We're going to see high level volleyball and it seems like when we play against high level volleyball, we sometimes compete at a higher level. So I'm hoping to see us compete at the highest level and people to maybe start hitting more top performance for longer periods of time.”

View past scores by visiting the Iowa High School Athletic Association's website, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union website,
or Iowa Quik Stats