Greene County began a busy stretch of action at Monday’s Roland-Story Norsemen Invitational in Story City. The Rams host PCM (Monroe) tonight in Jefferson in the middle school gym in Heart of Iowa Activities Conference play, then go to Ogden on Thursday to face the host Bulldogs and Southeast Valley (Gowrie), a pair of non-conference opponents.

Coach Chris Heisterkamp’s Rams entered the week with a 9-12 record overall and 1-3 in the HOIAC. Last night in Story City, the Rams opened with Raccoon River Conference member Carlisle, losing to the Wildcats 10-21, 8-21. They ended the night with a victory over Madrid, 21-16, 21-19, and enter the PCM match tonight with a 10-13 mark.

No Ram had more than one kill vs. Carlisle, but Brianna Osterson had seven kills vs. Madrid. Osterson went seven for seven serving vs. the Tigers, while Katrina Heupel was five of six, Paige Heaning six of eight, and Sophia Havens three for three.

The coach told Raccoon Valley Radio, “Although it was nice to come away with another win, our victory over Madrid did not erase the lackluster effort against Carlisle, which started our evening. We were underperforming in every category. It is not where we want to be in the latter part of our season. I am looking for some players to step up and lead us back into the level of play of which we are capable. We’re always excited for a win, but there is more that needs to happen if we want to put up a good fight against upcoming tough competition.”

Action with PCM starts at 5 p.m. with freshmen and JV teams playing, followed by the varsity match at 6:30 p.m. or later.