SCHULENBURG - The Schulenburg High School volley ball team had a close match with Columbus High School in an area matchup Sept. 10 at Shorthorns Gym in Schulenburg nd won by a final score of 25-19, 25-23, 20-25, 20-25, 15-8. After the Lady Horns stormed out to a two set lead, Columbus fought back and won the next two sets to bring it to a fifth set, where Schulenburg had control from the beginning and was able to finish the deal. "It's tremendous for us," said Schulenburg head coach Donald Zapalac on the win. “This is a season that we need to grow and this team is showing the growth that we're looking for. They just seem to find ways to battle at the end. Columbus is a quality team. No question about it. Got some great hitters, libero played lights out for them, kept balls off the floor, so that's what we want this for. Did we really want to go five sets tonight? Of course not. We'd like to win all three and be done early, but this one here, we needed five sets in the regional tournament last year twice, so it's our first time playing five this year, so I wanted to see how we responded because going up 2-0 and losing the third and fourth set and having to battle through the fifth, I told them can you deal with the pressure and that's what we wanted to see." Lady Horns sophomore Haylee Vacek had 21 kills for the night but wasn't available for a quote. Columbus is still one of the best teams in the area and will likely shake this one off and
get back to their winning ways. "Schulenburg definitely has
lots of weapons and they play really good defense," said Co lumbus head volleyball coach Kayley Johns. "We started very slow at the beginning and I think it speaks highly of our defense to fight back and win the third and fourth sets. Obviously, we got behind in the fifth set and our passing wasn't as good, so it was hard to execute. We know we can do better. It's good for us to have this adversity going into district play. I think we have a lot to learn from it and it'll make us stronger in the end." Schulenburg gradually stretched their lead throughout the first set and had a 17-10 lead after an ace that made Columbus call timeout after a bunch of pre - vious kills, a couple aces, and a few mistakes from Columbus. The Lady Cardinals responded with some aces of their own with two in a row being from senior setter Abigail Fisher to make it 18-14.
