McCook volleyball team 1-2 at GNAC tourney

NORTH PLATTE -- The McCook Bison volleyball team posted a 1-2 record at the Greater Nebraska Athletic Conference tournament Saturday at North Platte.

McCook's record is 5-24.

The Bison defeated Hastings 5-15, 15-13, 15-9. McCook lost to Lexington 15-3, 15-6 and North Platte 15-0, 15-3.

In the victory over Hastings, Sara Cappel served 3 aces and Courtney Moore 2. Cappel had 10 kills, Moore 9, Jennifer Chmiel 4 and Ashley Hancock 4.

Abbee Haney had 18 set assists, Jessica Carfield 9 and Hancock 2. Allyx Shields had 1 block. Haney had 22 digs, Denae Owens 20 and Chmiel 17.

"Against Hastings, we finally woke up," said McCook volleyball coach Krystal Weber. "In Game 1, the score was 2-2 for quite a few rotations. Then we let up and made some mistakes. In Game 2, our defense picked up and the hitters came alive.

"Our setters were getting their feet behind the ball and were delivering the ball consistently to the hitters. Hastings called a timeout at 12-12.

"In the huddle I told the girls that we had just practice this scenario in practice yesterday. I knew they could finish the game.

"In Game 2, our back row defense was awesome. We were all over the court, and we weren't about to let the ball hit the floor.

"Sara Cappel and Courtney Moore stepped it up in the hitting department and put the ball where the Hastings defense was not."

Weber said the team in practice worked on visualizing a victory scenario for the tournament.

"It was a good win for us -- our first against a district opponent," she said. "The girls were kind of more relaxed in Games 2 and 3 when we found ourselves with the exact scores we had practiced in our scrimmage scenarios the day before (12-12, 9-4). When we reached 10 points, you would have thought we had won state."

In the loss to Lexington, Owens had 1 ace serve. Cappel had 6 kills, Moore 3, Hancock 2 and Chmiel 2.

Haney had 8 set assists and Carfield 2. Shields had 1 block. Chmiel had 14 digs, Moore 9 and Owens 6.

In the loss to North Platte, Haney had 1 ace serve. Shields had 4 kills and Moore 2.

Carfield had 5 set assists and Haney 3. There were no blocks. Chmiel had 5 digs, Moore 5 and Cappel 4.

"We really didn't show up to play against North Platte or Lexington," Weber said. "We looked like zombies on the court. We weren't communicating well at all.

"Our passing was not great, so our setters were not getting the ball consistently to the hitters. Our defense was non-existent.

"We were looking at everyone else instead of taking care of our own responsibilities. This was frustrating since we had practiced so well on Friday."

The Bison are the No. 5 seed in the Nebraska Class B-5 district Thursday at Kearney.

McCook will face No. 4 seed Holdrege at 4 p.m. in the first match of the day.

The winner will take on top-seed Grand Island Northwest at 5:30 p.m. Third seed Hastings plays second seed Lexington at 7 p.m.

The winner of those two games will meet in the championship match at 8:30 p.m..

The winner advances to the Class B state volleyball tournament Nov. 14-15 at Lincoln.