Fremont-Mills sweeps Lenox

LENOX — Fremont-Mills started regional tournament play Monday with an impressive 25-22, 25-16, 25-20 sweep of Lenox on the Tigers’ court.

Fremont-Mills (11-24) advances to Wednesday’s second-round match at No. 11-ranked Sidney (30-8). Lenox closes at 15-18. Lenox had swept Fremont-Mills earlier this season at the Red Oak Tournament.

“They’re getting their players back,” said Lenox co-coach Tom Christensen. “They had three on the sidelines when we played them.”

F-M coach Molly From urged her team to be aggressive Monday.

“We’ve had five varsity starters hurt and out during the season, so we’ve dealt with a lot of adversity and had a lot of girls step up,” From said. “Tonight we had our blocks taking away their cross (attacks) and we told the girls to swing hard, and not tip and push.”

Teagan Ewalt led the Knights with 17 kills and 14 assists. Sadie Cox had seven kills for Lenox, but co-coach Jesse Cox said the team’s tempo wasn’t quite good enough.

“Our passes weren’t bad, but they weren’t great,” Cox said. “Our sets weren’t bad, but they weren’t great. Our hitting tempo was a little off tonight.”

Area roundup

In other Region 2 action Monday, Audubon advanced 3-0 over Nodaway Valley, 25-22, 25-16, 25-18.

In Region 4, Diagonal and Murray won opening-round matches to advance to Wednesday’s action, while Orient-Macksburg and East Union were eliminated. Diagonal won a regional match for the first time in an estimated 15 years by sweeping Martensdale-St. Marys, 25-23, 25-13, 25-20. They travel to Earlham, which swept O-M 25-20, 25-8, 25-11.

Southeast Warren swept East Union 25-9, 25-13, 25-14 and will host Murray. The Lady Mustangs won at Lamoni, 23-25, 27-25, 25-23, 25-22.

Lenox statistics

Kills — Sadie Cox 7, Gabby Robles 5, Cadence Douglas 4.

Digs — Robles 15, Douglas 11, Cox 11.

Assists — Delaney Funk 11, Angela Zapata 7.

Service aces — Zapata 3, Cox 2.