Lady Indians Win All Matches in Sharon Springs
The Lady Indian volleyball team traveled to Sharon Springs for competition on Tuesday, September 11, and came home with a clean sweep of all matches played. The Lady Indian junior varsity defeated Wallace County 25-21, 25-12 in the only junior varsity match of the evening. The varsity Lady Indians earned victories over Wallace County 26-24, 25-15 and Greeley County 25-13, 25-12.
The Lady Indians were a bit sluggish in the first set against Wallace County (WC) and trailed most of the set. St. Francis jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but a few Lady Indian errors soon tied the match. Lauren Johnson's kill gave St. Francis a 4-3 advantage, but a WC kill off-the-net tied the set again. Kills by Lindsey Johnson and Emma Johnson increased the margin to 7-5, but a stuff-block by Aubrey Kuhlman (5' 8" Jr.) and kills by Jessie Carman (5' 7" So.) and Kuhlman (2) recovered the lead (9-7) for the Lady Wildcats. The run was stopped by a kill by Hannah Zimbal, but a Lady Indian missed serve slowed momentum. After a St. Francis time-out at 8-11, Zimbal smashed an aggressive kill, but WC answered with a three-point run including a stuff by Haylee Hennick (5' 11" Jr.) and a kill by Leah Ayers (5' 6" Jr.). The Lady Indians now trailed by five (9-14). Two WC errors and a kill by Jessica Confer narrowed the difference to 12-14. Confer sandwiched a kill between kills by Ayers and Hennick to advance the scoreboard to 13-17. A foot-fault on a serve also helped the Lady Indians' cause. Another three-point WC run included kills by Hennick an Tori Springsteel (5' 7" So.) and led to St. Francis using their final time-out. After returning to action, the Lady Indians earned kills by Confer, Lindsey Johnson, Zimbal, and Mia Morrow, and an ace by Emma Johnson. The five-point run closed the gap to 21-22, and included a WC time-out. After a SF attack error, a strong attack by Morrow led to a passing error by the Lady Cats. Confer followed with a stuff-block on a Hennick attack tying the set at 23-all. WC then committed a setting error, but St. Francis followed with an attack error. Tied 24-24, the Lady Indians earned an over-set tip and a kill by Confer to close the set. St. Francis had earned a come-from-behind 26-24 victory.
In the first volley of set two, Hannah Zimbal made an amazing save pancaking a well-placed WC attack. The first three volleys ended on WC attack errors. Two aces by Karly Bandel gave the Lady Indians a 5-0 lead. Another run of three points increased the margin to 8-1 and included a kill by Jessica Confer, a dump-set by Lauren Johnson, and an ace serve by Mia Morrow. The advantage grew to 10-2 on two more WC attack errors, before Makenna Chaney (5' 7" So.) smacked one to the floor for the Lady Wildcats. WC slowly closed the gap to 13-7, but the Lady Indians rolled again scoring a five-point run to lead 18-7. During the run, Zimbal tallied three kills and a stuff, and Emma Johnson added an ace. The teams traded a few points with Carmen scoring an ace and Chaney another kill. St. Francis earned an ace from Bandel and a dump-set kill from Lauren Johnson. The next three-point run belonged to WC (SF service error, kill, ace) and reduced the margin to 21-14. St. Francis closed well earning points on four of the next five volleys (Lindsey Johnson kill, Emma Johnson kill, Confer a "smokin" ace, and Lauren Johnson kill). St. Francis controlled the second set 25-15.
St. Francis controlled the Greeley County match throughout play. Karly Bandel opened the match with an ace serve. Jessica Confer ended the next volley with a stuff. Greeley County's (GC) Brianna Hill (5' 2" Fr.) tied the set with an ace at 2-all. A kill by Confer and an ace by Mia Morrow put St. Francis back in front. After trading missed serves, St. Francis scored five consecutive points to lead 9-3. The run included two aces by Lauren Johnson and a kill by Lindsey Johnson. GC then scored the first of two runs they would earn in the set, getting four points; three due to the Lady Indians' difficulty handling the serves of Aly Chanez (5' 4" Fr.) and one on a GC kill. The action narrowed the St. Francis lead to 9-7. St. Francis responded with a 7-point run and a 6-point run allowing only one GC point between them. St. Francis earned kills by Lauren Johnson, Lindsey Johnson (3), Hannah Zimbal, and Morrow (2) to take a 22-8 advantage. A dump-set by Emma Johnson and a nice off-speed kill by Morrow moved the score to 24-12. The teams traded missed serves to close the set. St. Francis won set one 25-13.
In set two, Greeley County earned two runs of three points each. St. Francis made runs of 5, 5, 4, 3, and 4 to control the set. Jessica Confer's opening kill was followed by a joust won by GC's Mattie Brandl (5' 5" So.). A 5-point SF run included a kills by Emma, Lindsey, and Lauren Johnson, and a stuff by Emma to move the score to 7-2. GC narrowed the gap on three consecutive errors by the Lady Indians. Another five-point run advanced the score to 12-5 and included an over-pass tip kill by Emma Johnson, an aggressive smash by Hannah Zimbal, a passing error caused by a strong attack by Lindsey Johnson, and a joust won by ZImbal. GC then scored three more, getting a kill off-a-block by Kamryn Youmans (5' 3' So.), an over-set kill by Autumn Vasquez (5' 4" Jr.), and a SF passing error. Kills by Lauren Johnson and Mia Morrow coupled with two aces by Lindsey Johnson moved the score to 16-8. During the next few volleys, the teams traded errors and aces (Bandel and Chanez). An aggressive kill by Confer was followed by a deep-tip by Lauren Johnson and another Confer kill. It was time for some substitute players who had just entered the gym after concluding the junior varsity contest. The last four volleys ended in the Lady Indians' favor (Emma Johnson kill, Kattie Wurm ace, Confer kill, Lindsey Johnson kill). St. Francis won the set and the match 25-12.
The Lady Indians will play Lone Star (CO) on Thursday, September 13, in St. Francis. The match will be played best 3 of 5 beginning at 4:30 p.m. There will be no junior varsity contest.
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