Clarkson/Leigh loses in five sets to Lyons-Decatur Northeast

The Clarkson/Leigh Patriots dropped their lone match last week, falling 3-2 at home to Lyons-Decatur Northeast on Tuesday.

Clarkson/Leigh won set one 25-21 and set two 26-24 before losing sets three, four, and five 28-26, 25-16, and 21-19.

Shelby Paprocki had 19 kills and 16 digs. Camille Koehn added 14 kills and 7 digs while Maddie Cerv totaled 10 kills and 26 digs. Hannah Kasik notched 9 kills. Cully Cerv had 8 digs. Kaegan Held and Kaitlyn Becher dished out 23 assists apiece.

It appears this was an absolute crazy match. Credit the Patriots for continuing to fight. I'm sure Clarkson/Leigh wishes they could have finished things off, but the Patriots showed a lot of heart and determination in doing as well as they did. It appears Clarkson/Leigh battled as hard as they could until the very end.

The Patriots (1-2) are at Scribner-Snyder (1-8) on Tuesday.

This match has a chance to be fairly decent, in my opinion, but I think Clarkson/Leigh has a good chance to pick up a win.

The Trojans lost 2-1 to Howells-Dodge and 2-0 to Cedar Bluffs at the Cedar Bluffs Triangular on Tuesday of last week before beating Bancroft-Rosalie 2-1 and losing 2-0 to Oakland-Craig on Thursday at the Scribner-Snyder Triangular.

Scribner-Snyder will no doubt come in with some confidence and swagger, but the Patriots have to be somewhat encouraged by the way they are playing.

The only thing Clarkson/Leigh really needs to work on, in my opinion, is finishing matches.

The Patriots have to put teams away when they have them down.

I think this match could go four or five sets, but I look for Clarkson/Leigh to prevail.

I know the Patriots lost a close, tough five set match at home to the Cougars, but I have a feeling Clarkson/Leigh will find a way to pull things out on Tuesday.

To be .500 and almost 3-1 after four matches would be a big accomplishment for this team. The Patriots aren't where they want to be yet, but if Clarkson/Leigh can win Tuesday's match they will add to the strides they have already made this season.

The Patriots have High Plains Community and Humphrey/Lindsay Holy Family on Thursday so a win on Tuesday would potentially give Clarkson/Leigh the confidence needed to win more matches on Thursday.