The Hinton Blackhawk volleyball team missed out on the state tournament losing their region final with Boyden-Hull in an exciting five-set match in Orange City on Wednesday night.
The Blackhawks jumped out to a convincing lead winning the first two sets of the match by scores of 25-22 and 26-24. The wins came in spite of some play that was not up to their standard. Hinton co-head coach Robin Mohr says the Blackhawk passing game was far behind in the match.
Hinton still led the match 2-0, but Boyden-Hull was not going to take that lying down. The Comets went on to win the third and fourth sets by scores of 25-21 and 25-22. Coach Mohr says Boyden-Hull’s defense was very good, and it made the Blackhawks use a lot of energy to win points.
Boyden-Hull got out to some big leads in those sets, but Hinton never let them fully pull away. Coach Mohr says the fight was good to see, but playing from behind is always a challenge.
The Blackhawks ended up losing set five 15-13 after leading it 9-4 at the first timeout. Hinton was dealt a tough hand losing senior Natalie Nelson at the beginning of the year and star Bailey Boeve in the middle of the season with injuries. Through those trials, Hinton never gave up and still came a few points away from getting back to state. Coach Mohr says he is proud of how the girls stuck with it.
Hinton graduates a group of five seniors that had to fight through a tough year that followed two state tournament appearances. Coach Mohr says they all had their specific job, and they did those jobs well.
Hinton ends the year with a record of 22-7. Boyden-Hull advances to state with a record of 19-12. It is their fourth trip to state in the last five years.
