By Sam Parsons

The Oskaloosa Indians hosted the #9 (5A) Indianola Indians on Tuesday night for their Little Hawkeye Conference opener and fell in three sets.

Oskaloosa demonstrated improvement over their meeting with Indianola last year, in which they were swept 25-12, 25-10, and 25-13. They battled hard in the opening set: Indianola led by as many as 5 points in various parts of the set, but after trailing 16-11, Oskaloosa fought their way back into it, eventually rattling off 5 straight points to take a 22-21 lead. Unfortunately, Indianola was able to right the ship late and won 4 of the final 5 points of the set to take a 25-23 set victory.

In the second set, Indianola jumped out to a quick 9-3 lead and maintained a large advantage until it was set point at 24-12. Osky was able to finish strong and force an Indianola timeout, but they fell short of a miracle comeback, losing 25-17.

The third set saw Oskaloosa run out of gas while Indianola was playing at their highest level of the night. Indianola raced to a 25-8 set victory in which Oskaloosa only managed to score back-to-back points two different times.

The loss sets Oskaloosa back to 4-3 on the season and 0-1 in conference play. On Saturday, they will travel to Solon for a tournament before resuming their conference schedule next Tuesday at Pella Christian.