West Fork wins home triangular

SHEFFIELD – It took three sets in both matches to accomplish, but West Fork’s volleyball team came out of its home triangular with wins over Clarksville and Belmond-Klemme on Monday, Oct. 14.

The Warhawks survived a scrappy Clarksville team in a 25-16, 24-26, 15-1 victory, against a team that had made wholesale changes, switching up its libero and setter as late as last week.

West Fork, too, has had a lot of changes itself, having a pair of freshmen step up of late.

“We had some injuries and that led us to bring up some freshmen and they’ve done a phenomenal job,” Dickman said. “I can’t even mention them enough. Emma Martinek and Keelee Sheriff have done a phenomenal job. And our seniors really came through.

“I was really trying to give them some time for their last time on the home court. It made it a little longer, but that’s okay.”

Dickman was referring to the Warhawks’ final match of the night, a 25-16, 24-26, 15-13 win over the Broncos in which her team was leading 14-6 before putting some of her reserve seniors in and saw B-K rally and eventually take the lead and the set to force a third.

“The girls were probably wondering what I was doing,” Dickman said, “but they don’t understand that tomorrow they wake up and they’re a senior and they don’t get to play on this court again, it’s a little bit more painful.”

But it was sophomore Maddie Hubka who made the difference from the service line in ending both matches with a victory.

Against Clarksville with the match and set tied 1-1, Hubka started serving and wasn’t done until the Warhawks scored the 15-1 win. During the course of her serving run, the Indians called timeout twice, she topped off that match with a pair of aces.

Trailing 13-12 when she started serving against B-K, she served up two more aces and then a Bronco hitting error ended the night.

“She served us to victory,” said Dickman. “She did phenomenal, and she isn’t really practicing because she has a herniated disc in her back, so she has to go in for surgery coming up; she isn’t supposed to be doing much and she’s my little go-to. We need her to operate our offense. She’s all over the place.”

The pair of wins helped West Fork improve to 7-12 overall. It has certainly been an up-and-down year for the Warhawks.

“They say it’s been a rebuilding year,” Dickman said, “but I say it’s more of a learning experience for the younger girls that they can take away from this.”

West Fork had one more weekend tournament before they open Class 2A regional play at Denver High School against Denver.

“They have a 24-14 record,” Dickman said. “They are going to be solid. We can play with the best and we can sure hang with the worst, you just never know.”