The Raiders Volleyball team split the week falling 3-0 to a tough Prescott squad on Tuesday, Sept. 24. Hastings turned around and dominated Tartan to move to 4-1 in the conference and 8-9 overall which has them in second place in the Metro East Conference.
The match against Prescott was a tough one for Hastings despite strong performances from Haley Strain, Lexi Grude and Norah Thome. Head Coach Elisabeth Curran pointed out that the overall performance was disappointing, noting that the offense struggled with consistent play, especially around ‘putting the ball away’ even with their excellent performances around receiving the strong serves from the Cardinals.
The Raiders did keep the score very competitive for the first two sets, 25-20 and 25-20. For the third set, it was clear the Cardinals attack was tiring the Raiders out and they fell 25-15.
The script flipped in the conference game against Tartan on Sept. 26. Hastings came into the contest ready to go winning all three sets. 25-15, 25-15 and 25-18.
“We rocked it against Tartan,” said Curran. “We won all three sets with commanding leads, I am still trying to get the film from their coach, but I would guess that Haley Strain hit at least .500. She had a phenomenal night! Almost every ball she touched was a kill.”
Again, the Raiders serve receive was a highlight of the night as well, setting up other aspects of the offense and the defensive blocking sealed the game.
“It was probably the best we have played all season,” added Curran. “We maintained a high level of energy and effort the entire night.”
With the win, the Raiders moved to 4-1 in the conference which puts them in second place behind Mahtomedi who gave the Raiders their only conference loss to date. Overall, Hastings is 8-9. Looking at the Section 3AAAA standings, the Raiders are 1-0 which puts them as the sixth seed in the section currently.
Hastings has four regular season games left plus a large, end of season invite at Mounds View. Hill-Murray is the next opponent, at 6:30 p.m. at Hill-Murray on Oct. 2, then at St. Paul Harding on Oct. 8 at 7:00 p.m. Hastings then hosts North St. Paul on Oct. 10 at 6:30 p.m. before the 8:00 a.m. invite at Mounds View on Oct. 12. The final regular season game will take place on Oct. 15 at South St. Paul at 6:30 p.m.