Fremont volleyball upended by Elkhorn South in state tournament

Fremont volleyball bowed out of the Class A state tournament in the opening round, swept away by No. 6 seed Elkhorn South 25-22, 25-17, 25-20 Wednesday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena.

"We seemed a little hesitant in the first game, didn't get things going right away, didn't get into a rhythm," said Fremont co-head coach Sue Wewel.

Fremont put together a 7-2 run in the opening set to erase a 10-5 deficit, but never fully took control of the set, spirally out to a six-point deficit after climbing back into the match.

The Tigers made another charge at the Storm facing match point, fighting off a conclusion for five-straight points before dropping the opener by three.

It was the only major string of points on the night for Fremont as Elkhorn South covered practically every square inch of its side of the court on every point.

"We really thought we could go into the deep position and hit there and even to the setter side and get some points out of that, and their middle back really responded to our hits," Wewel said. "Their block was pretty sound too and so it was hard to get things going."

Fremont ran into trouble again in set two as Elkhorn South kept senior outside hitter Mattie Dalton, hamstringing the Tigers offense while building a 15-9 lead.

"They played lights out and that's hard," Dalton said. "It's hard when you walk away from a loss and that's how the other team played and you feel like you didn't play the same."

Once unshackled from the backrow, the North Dakota commit put down five-straight kills, cutting the deficit down to 18-15.

Dalton finished with 22 kills to lead the Tigers one final time, setting the program's career kill bench mark at 1,933.

Fremont held the lead for most of the third set, clinging to a 14-10 advantage at the midway point.

Elkhorn South outscored the Tigers 15-3 the rest of the way.

Fremont ends the year with a 28-6 record, the most wins in program history.

"They accomplished so many things for this Fremont team and for the school and the community," Wewel said. "The seven seniors that were on the court did a great job of coming together, making things fun and practices lively and it has been a really fun run."