In a battle of top 15 ranked teams, the Class 2A #3 Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont Rockets defeated class 4A #14 Knoxville 3-1 last night in volleyball action. The Rockets took advantage of several Knoxville errors in the first set to win 25-19, but Knoxville fired right back in set two winning 26-24, but EBF dominated set three 25-14 and closed out a wild set four 25-23 as neither team led by more than two points the entire set. Knoxville players Anna Buttell and Lexi Koons tell KNIA/KRLS Sports it was a matter of EBF getting Knoxville in scramble mode and not responding.
Anna: “I fell like a lot of times we got freaked out for no reason. We had a rollercoaster going, it just wasn’t good enough.”
Lexi: “We’re all scrambled and that’s a good word to call us now because we’re not all together and practice is going to be interesting tomorrow, so I think we’ll step it up from there.”
Brittany Bacorn led the Panthers with 13 kills on the night while Emma Dunkin had 17 digs, Hannah Dunkin had 14 assists and Ella Breazeale had four blocks. Knoxville is now 6-4 on the season and will head to the Des Moines Christian Quad on Thursday. Meanwhile, in Oskaloosa the Knoxville Cross Country Squads were running against stiff competition. The boys finished 8th overall with Isaac Rankin finishing 3rd individually in a time of 17:07. The girls, while shorthanded, did not have enough to score were led by Natalie Collins in 25th with a time of 22:47. Knoxville heads to Newton next Tuesday.