The Crawford Rams finished in sixth place at the Panhandle Conference Volleyball Tournament Saturday in Edgemont.
The Rams were 0-2 on the day, opening the tournament with a loss to Hemingford and dropping a 2-1 game to Morrill in the consolation bracket.
Morrill earned a 2-1 victory to take fifth over the Rams, winning the first and third sets 25-11, 25-20. Crawford took the second set 25-20 to force a three-set battle.
The Rams led 4-2 early in the first set, but the Lions tied it at four and then took a lead they never relinquished. The situation reversed in the second when Morrill opened with a 4-2 edge, which it extended to an 8-3 lead. Crawford hung in, however, and tied the score at 19. Capitalizing on Lion errors and two kills by Carly Lemmon, the Rams put together a 6-1 run to take the set.
Morrill led from the outset in the final game, opening up an 18-10 lead. The Rams were able to pull within three with a 5-0 run that included three aces by Tianna Clark to make it 18-15. A free-ball kill and another ace by Kamden Victory made it 19-17, but the Rams were unable to close the gap any further. The Rams had 18 kills in the match, along with eight aces. Carly Lemmon led the Rams with six kills, and Kamden Victory and Tianna Clark each had three ace serves.
Crawford faced Hemingford in the first round. The Bobcats took the win 25-15, 25-19 to advance to the semi-finals. The Rams led 3-1 thanks to an Alexa Tollman kill and two Bobcat hitting errors. Hemingford responded with two kills and an ace to go up 4-3 and controlled the game the rest of the way. Tollman opened the second set with three consecutive aces, and that, combined with errors by the Bobcats, gave Crawford a 5-0 advantage. After a 6-4 score, the Rams kept the Bobcats at bay by three to five points until they pulled within one at 15-14 behind a block and two aces.
Hemingford tied the score at 16 and 18 before taking a 19-18 lead. The Bobcats used a 6-1 run to take the come-from-behind game and match win. Crawford had six kills and five aces in the match.