VB Team Loses To Two Good Nebraska Teams
As they usually do, Chase County and Dundy County - Stratton field strong teams again this year. The Lady Indians lost to both teams in Imperial on Thursday, September 21. The evening opened with a 14-25, 19-25 loss to the Chase County (Imperial, NE) Lady Longhorns. In the second match of the evening, the Lady Indians were defeated by Dundy County - Stratton 16-25, 18-25. The junior varsity team played only one match during the evening defeating Chase County 25-7, 25-16.
Chase County fielded a fairly young team, but the excellent fundamental skills and effort shown by the Longhorns was too much for the Lady Indians to overcome. Chase County earned four runs in set one and limited the Lady Indians to only one three-point run. Chase County (CC) jumped out to a 0-4 lead earning stuff-blocks by Ragan Nickless (Sr.) and Allison Owings (Jr.) and a kill by Nickless. Jessica Confer stopped the run with a deep-tip. The Lady Longhorns then reeled off five straight points to take a 1-9 advantage. Only one of the points resulted from a kill by Nickless with the others being added due to St. Francis miscues. A Confer kill again stopped the CC run. Unfortunately, the Lady Indians missed their next serve, and another five-point CC run resulted moving the scoreboard to 3-14. This run was slowed by a kill by Hanna Bracelin. An ace by Taighe Weeter was answered by an aggressive kill by Nickless moving the score to 6-17. St. Francis then completed their only three-point run of the set getting a kill from Emileigh Dinkel, a kill from Lindsey Johnson (set Dinkel), and an attack error from Chase County. Dinkel would record two more kills and Bracelin one enroute to a 14-22 score. CC ended the set with a kill, a stuff, and an ace. St. Francis lost set one 14-25.
St. Francis earned their first lead of the match, 2-0, on a stuff and kill by Lindsey Johnson. CC tied the set at 3-all with a kill. The Lady Indians then rolled to a 9-3 advantage tallying six straight points on three kills by Jessica Confer and receiving an ace serve by Karly Bandel before missing another serve. After leading 11-5, a series of errors by the Lady Indians and a double-stuff by CC moved the Lady Horns to the lead (11-12) and eventually triggered a SF time-out. After the time-out, the Lady Indians earned three consecutive points before the run ended with a CC kill. Kills by Lindsey Johnson and Confer highlighted the next SF three-point run and moved the score to 17-13. Chase County then took a time-out to regroup. Another powerful kill by Kickless followed. In the next few moments, the Lady Horns added an crushing over-pass kill by Owings and an ace by Madiaon Schuller (S0.) and took an 18-19 lead. The run was halted by a CC attack error, but only momentarily, as the Lady Horns reeled off the last six points of the match on consecutive volleys. St. Francis lost to Chase County 19-25 in set two.
Dundy County - Stratton (DCS) was the second opponent for the varsity Lady Indians. The Lady Indians started the set one slowly giving up two kills, an ace, and three miscues to trail 2-6. A 5-point run by the Lady Tigers stretched the deficit to 3-11 before Jessica Confer recorded a free-ball kill to stop the run. DCS followed with a five-point run increasing the margin to 4-16. Three of the 10 points scored by DCS in the two runs came on two kills and one stuff. All the others were Lady Indian errors. A missed serve by the Lady Tigers stopped the second run, but DCS followed with four consecutive points to earn a 5-20 advantage. In the run, Adalene Krutsinger (Jr.) and Kelcie Burke (Sr.) each had strong kills. Taighe Weeter's back-row kill stopped the run and started a three-point Lady Indian run that included a nice double-block by Lindsey Johnson and Emileigh Dinkel. Another 3-point DCS run ending with an ace by Krutsinger moved the score to 8-23 before DCS missed another serve. The Lady Indians then earned eight consecutive points on a nice serving run by Karly Bandel which included two kills by Jessica Confer and a Bandel ace. St. Francis lost game one to DCS 16-25.
Set two was much closer throughout. The set was tied at 2 on a deep-tip by Jessica Confer and at 3 on an aggressive over-pass kill by Hanna Bracelin. A hitting error by DCS gave the Lady Indians their first lead of the match at 4-3. St. Francis forged a 7-4 lead after receiving an over-set kill by Bracelin and a kill by Taighe Weeter. The Lady Indians then missed a service attempt, and soon the game became tied at 7-all on a strong kill by Krutsinger. Bracelin answered with a kill to tie, but then the Lady Tigers earned six consecutive points with all but one coming on SF miscues. The score now stood at 8-13. St. Francis narrowed the margin on two kills by Lauren Johnson and a stuff by Lindsey Johnson, but got no closer than 12-15. The next five-point DCS run increased the deficit to 12-20. Though they battled hard in the closing volleys, the Lady Indians lost game two 18-25.
The only junior varsity match played during the evening was between St. Francis and Chase County. St. Francis easily out-distanced the Lady Longhorns in both sets. The Lady Indians jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the first set, scoring on eight straight serves by Karly Bandel before missing a serve. Bandel recorded 3 aces in the run. St. Francis led 12-4 after receiving a kill by Emma Johnson and an ace by Kattie Wurm. The next St. Francis explosion of 10 consecutive points began with a dump-set by Johnson and included another Johnson kill and three aces by Jessica Confer. St. Francis won game one 25-7.
The second set found the Lady Indians leading 6-1 before a missed serve stopped the SF run. A kill by Lauren Johnson and a jump-serve ace by Jessica Confer increased the margin to 9-2. CC then scored four straight points moving the score to 9-6 before the CC run was stopped by a dump-set by Emma Johnson. It was the only run of three-or-more points the Lady Longhorns would earn in both sets. The Lady Indians cruised to a 25-16 win gathering two kills by Emma Johnson, two kills by Lauren Johnson, one kill by Hannah Zimbal, and aces from Lauren Johnson and Zimbal along the way.
The Lady Indians will play Cheylin and Decatur Community on Tuesday, September 26, in St. Francis.
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