By John RittenhouseThe Ellsworth volleyball team completed 12-12 regular season play by competing at three events since last Thursday.The Panthers ended a 2-5 Camden Conference season by dropping five-game matches to Lakeview in Ellsworth Thursday and to Canby in Canby Tuesday.Ellsworth was at its best during the Harris-Lake Park Tournament in Lake Park, Iowa, Saturday, going 3-0 and winning the event.The Panthers have drawn the fifth seed for the South Section 3A Tournament and will take on No. 4 Edgerton in the quarterfinals at the Luverne Elementary School Friday, Oct. 24. The match will be played 25 minutes after a 6 p.m. contest between Hills-Beaver Creek and Adrian.Canby 3, Ellsworth 2The Panthers ended the regular season with a disappointing loss to the Lancers in Canby Tuesday.Ellsworth was in command after winning two of the first three games of the match, but Canby took Games 4 and 5 to steal a victory."We just had a tough time keeping the ball in play," said Panther coach Jason Langland. "We had a lot of hitting errors in this match."Langland thought his Panthers might come away with a win when they led 24-23 late in Game 4, but the Lancers scored the next three points to pull out a 26-24 victory. Canby strolled to a 15-9 win in the fifth game to complete the comeback.Ellsworth notched a 25-21 win in the opener before falling 25-10 in Game 2. The Panthers topped the Lancers 25-22 in the third game.Laurel Drenth, who was 15 of 15 serving with three aces, had six kills and four blocks for the Panthers. Brittney Kramer, who had four blocks, led EHS with 11 kills.Amanda Deutsch led the Panthers with 12 digs. She also recorded six kills. Lynette Drenth and Marla Groen contributed eight and five set assists to the cause respectively. Amy Timmer chipped in eight digs.H-LP tourneyThe Panthers went 3-0 to win the championship during Saturday’s tournament in Lake Park, Iowa.Ellsworth won six of seven games during the four-team, round-robin event.Ellsworth’s performance was a nice surprise for Panther coach Langland, who was unsure how his players would respond after dropping a five-game home match to Lakeview two days earlier."The girls played really well. After losing a heart-breaking match to Lakeview, it was nice to win three straight matches," he said.Ellsworth opened the tournament by sweeping a two-game match from Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster. The Panthers won both games by 21-18 tallies.Timmer was 11 of 12 serving with one ace in the opener. Amy Tiesler led EHS with six kills, while Laurel Drenth and Kramer had three kills and two blocks each. Drenth also led the Panthers with four digs in the match.Lynette Drenth and Groen charted three set assists each in the opener.The Panthers bested H-LP in a three-game match in the second round.Ellsworth won 21-18 in Game 1 before the hosts knotted the match with a 21-19 win in the second game. The Panthers prevailed 15-5 in the finale.Deusch, who led the Panthers with six digs in the match, completed 18 of 18 serves with one ace. Tiesler was 11 of 11 serving with one ace.Laurel Drenth had six kills and two blocks, Tiesler five kills and Kramer four kills and two blocks against the host school.The Panthers completed the tournament by posting 21-16 and 25-23 wins against Bethany Christian.Deutsch was 11 of 13 serving with six aces and led the Panthers with six digs in the finale. Kramer was six of eight serving with three aces.Tiesler and Laurel Drenth charted four kills each for the winners. Groen recorded seven set assists.Lakeview 3,Ellsworth 2The Lakers and Panthers traded blows for five games before visiting Lakeveiw pulled out a 3-2 win in Ellsworth Thursday.It looked like Ellsworth’s home finale would be a successful one when they bounced back from a loss in Game 1 to take the next two games.Lakeview, however, played well on defense the entire night and it enabled the Lakers to win the match in five games."The teams were pretty evenly matched, but it was their defense that won the match for them," said Panther coach Langland. "They didn’t hit the ball at us much. They just played good defense."The Lakers gained the upper hand early in Game 1 by posting a 25-19 win before Ellsworth came storming back to notch 25-20 and 26-24 victories in Games 2 and 3.Lakeview evened the match at two games each with a 25-11 win in Game 4 before posting a 15-11 victory in the fifth game.Laurel Drenth led EHS at the net with 18 kills and 12 blocks. Kramer added 12 kills and six blocks.Deutsch completed 24 of 26 serves with two aces and led the Panthers with 12 digs. Groen and Lynette Drenth charted 13 and nine set assists for Ellsworth.
