No. 13 Lisbon went 3-0 at its home quadrangular Thursday, Sept. 5, at the Lion’s Den.
Lisbon (5-1) beat Winfield-Mount Union 16-21, 21-14, 15-8, topped North Linn 21-19, 22-20, then took care of East Buchanan 21-18, 21-6.
“We are getting there,” Lisbon coach Lance Kamaus said. “It is not the group we are going to be in a couple weeks. The kids are getting experience. I think these two quads have been really good for us to figure things out.”
WMU jumped on the Lions 4-0 to start the evening. Lisbon finally got even at 13-13 behind a pair of ace serves from Kaitlynn Hasselbusch.
The senior setter missed the first three matches of the season with an ankle injury.
“This was the first time we’ve ever run this lineup. Ever,” Kamaus said. “Kaitlynn has only really started practicing the last couple nights. It is just completely different.”
WMU freshman Kynlee Buffington came up with a couple big kills down the stretch, and the Wolves ended up winning the first set.
“We knew we had work to do,” Lisbon junior Mykala Luzum-Selmon said. “We can get up, and we can get down, but when we know we’re behind, we work hard and try to get our points.”
Lisbon never trailed in the second set, and got up big early, 10-3, on a couple Luzum-Selmon kills.
In the tiebreaking third set, Lisbon raced out to a 4-0 lead thanks to a Sarah Dietsch kill and two aces by Hasselbusch. The Wolves cut it to three, 8-5, then Kamryn Kahl and Dietsch had kills and freshman Kyla Kahl had an ace and it was 12-5.
It was a key stretch, putting WMU away with Luzum- Selmon in the back row.
“We rely on everybody,” Luzum-Selmon said. “Everybody is strong and I think when I’m in the back row, we’re stronger than ever.
“We did get put in a lot of tight positions, which is good for our team.”
Next up was a pair of Tri-Rivers West foes. The Lynx pushed the Lions in both sets.
Lisbon was trailing 19-15 in the first set and were bailed out by three Lynx errors plus two Dietsch aces and a block by junior Alexa Roos.
“We’ve shown really good resiliency,” Kamaus said. “We need to have that focus and intensity from the get go.”
The second set was a battle, with neither team ever leading by more than two points. The Lynx were leading 19-17 when the Lions used a North Linn attack error, three kills by Kamryn Kahl and two kills by Dietsch, to close it out.
“We had some runs there,” Kamaus said. “On balls in play, we are really good right now.”
Against the Bucs, the Lions played another close set and then uncorked a dominating one.
Luzum-Selmon finished the night with 33 kills. She continues to be the hard-hitting sparkplug for the Lions.
“Against WMU, it seemed like there was a stretch there where she was getting every single point,” Kamaus said. (She had 16 kills that match.) “Some of those kills were just hammers. That gets everyone in the gym excited.”
And the junior did it with a shoulder brace on her swing arm.
“It is just a helps me hit harder,” Luzum-Selmon said. “I’m trying to come back stronger and better.”
Dietsch added 18 kills and Kamryn Kahl had 15 kills.
Hasselbusch had 63 assists.
“Lauren (Stolte) played well last week stepping in (at setter), but you can’t replace the experience Kaitlynn brings,” Kamaus said.
Kyla Kahl, the freshman libero, had 28 digs to pace the defense.
“She was very good tonight,” Kamaus said. “Not that she played poorly last week, but she was decidedly better today. And she was more vocal. Really good.”
“Kyla kept up with the game really well,” Luzum- Selmon said.
The Lions open conference play Thursday, Sept. 12, at Springville.