—Photo by Corey Meints/Iowa Falls Times Citizen St. Edmond’s Ava Underberg hits the ball over the net against AGWSR in a regional semifinal match.

ACKLEY — St. Edmond was in the driver’s seat early, but wasn’t able to put AGWSR away in a Class 1A regional semifinal on Monday night.

The Gaels (9-25 overall) won the first set 25-19, but the Cougars (18-23) captured the next three, 25-9, 25-16 and 26-24.

“Going into the season, we knew their was some potential,” said St. Edmond head coach John Johnson. “We struggled to battle for every point in the first part of the season, but in the last half we won some tight matches and tight sets.

“We lost a lot of deciding sets, but we were there having a chance as we finished the season. We had a sense of urgency and we learned a lot.”

In the fourth game, the Gaels had a strong rally after trailing 11-3 and cutting the margin to 15-11. St. Edmond went on an 8-4 run to tie the contest at 19-19.

With the Gaels trailing (19-16), Ava Andrew served three straight points, including back-to-back aces, to tie the contest.

“We played a solid fourth set,” Johnson said. “We started out behind and got back in it. Ava Andrew did a good job and we were able to get ahead after that.

“We battled and showed a lot of heart.”

After that the Gaels were able to tie it at 21-21 and 22-22, before taking their first lead of the game at 23-22.

The score was knotted at 24-24 when the Cougars closed out with two straight points.

St. Edmond jumped out right away earning the first set victory.

“We’ve played a lot of good first sets,” Johnson said. “We were able to jump ahead and keep them out of rhythm.”

Entering the match, AGWSR hadn’t lost a set in the postseason and the Gaels had lost only one.

It was the last match for St. Edmond senior Abby Lawler.

“Abby did a great job this year, after playing a little last year. She got after it,” Johnson said. “We only lose one senior, but most of our conference opponents lose two, three or four. We had three freshmen that saw some playing time and the younger kids did a great job of pushing the upperclassmen in practice and matches.

“Next year could be a special season for St. Edmond volleyball.”