Games two and three could have left the Lourdes volleyball team discouraged and headed toward defeat in Tuesday home action against Falls City Sacred Heart.

The Knights won the first game, but fell down big in the second game and lost, then dropped a close decision in game three.

Lourdes reacted by winning game four and dominating the decisive game five.

Final scores had the Knights winning the match, 25-20, 21-25, 23-25, 25-21, and 15-6.

The Knights increased a 20-17 lead to 24-18 and held on for the win in game one, but Sacred Heart, a team which had beaten the Knights in the last two meetings between the teams, jumped to a 9-3 lead in game two and eventually led 23-13.

Lourdes mounted a comeback, but the Irish won.

The two teams traded points throughout game three, but Sacred Heart got the last two points and took a 2-1 lead in the match.

Game four saw Lourdes rising to the challenge. The Knights led 15-10 and Sacred Heart called timeout in an attempt to squelch the momentum. Alyse Holmes served an ace after the timeout to keep the momentum on the Knight side.

Sacred Heart trailed 21-18 before Zoe Rickman put down back-to-back service aces to make it 23-18. Holmes closed out the game with a kill.

Lourdes jumped to a 12-5 lead in game five, then got a kill from Rickman that tapped the top of the net and fell to the floor. An ace by Haley Kreifels made it 14-6 and Lourdes closed out the game and the match from there.

Four players posted significant kill numbers to lead the win.

Alyse Holmes had 13 kills, three aces and 15 digs, while Haley Kreifels had 12 kills, three aces and 15 digs.

Zoe Rickman had 11 kills, two aces and 20 digs, and Hanna Morrison had eight kills, three aces, 17 digs and four blocks.

Anna Haneline had eight blocks and Kelsey Kreifels set the offense to the tune of 40 assists and also added a service ace and 17 digs.

Coming back after falling games two and three was a big accomplishment for the young Knight team with part of that turnaround being attributable to Holmes.

Coach Michelle Kreifels said the team talked in the huddle about a breakdown of communication on the court that was leading to negative results.

Holmes led that discussion, and the team responded.

Passing improvements keyed the comeback as well.

“We couldn’t pass the ball. That was the main thing,” Coach Kreifels said, adding that she was encouraged to see the effort pick up.

Lourdes, which pushed its record to 6-4 with the win, was scheduled to take on a tough challenge with the Syracuse-Dunbar-Avoca volleyball team coming to town for a Thursday triangular.

The Rockets entered Thursday with a 12-1 record and are fresh off winning their second tourney of the year at Fairbury.

Falls City public school will also be at the Thursday triangular.

The scene was a similar one last year with S-D-A having a solid team and most fans feeling as though the Rockets would win a match against a Lourdes team which only recently made the move up to Class C2.

The Knights were actually coming off a loss to Sacred Heart going into the match with the Rockets, yet found a way to pull the upset.

Although graduation has completely changed the Knight line up from last year, the team was coming off a win and setter Kelsey Kreifels said she believed that success would carry over to the Thursday match.

The crowd could play a big factor as well. Coach Kreifels said the students’ support Tuesday was a big key in the victory.

Kelsey felt the crowd made the difference over past Knight losses to Sacred Heart at the Southeast Consolidated

and MUDECAS tourneys, where the crowds were thinner and the energy was lower.

Freeman def. Lourdes

In other recent action, the Knights dropped a decision to Freeman at the MUDECAS tourney last week and wrapped up the tourney with one win in three matches.

Alyse Holmes had three kills in the Freeman match, while Hanna Morrison had two kills and four blocks. Kelsey Kreifels set for 12 assists and had 10 digs.

Johnson County Invite

The Johnson County Central Invite is set to begin at 9 a.m. Oct. 4. Lourdes will play the host team in the first match of the day.

The Knights are in Pool A with Johnson County Central and Thayer Central. Pool B teams are Exeter-Milligan, Falls City and Humboldt-TRS.