Bison sophomore volleyball squad finishes season

SOUTHWEST -- The McCook High School sophomore volleyball team finished its season Tuesday by splitting matches with Chase County and Southwest at the Southwest gymnasium.

McCook defeated Chase County 25-10, 25-8 and lost to Southwest 25-22, 19-25, 15-7.

In the Chase County match, McCook’s leading sewrver was Kelsey O’Dea, who was 12-for-13 with 8 aces. Kelsey Pohl was 10-for-11 in hitting with 4 kills. Jayde Aufrecht was 6-for-6 with 4 kills. Katie West 18-for-20 settiing with 13 assists. Katie Latta was 11-for-12 with 4 assists.

“The story of the Chase County match was 22 service aces,” said McCook coach George Briggs. “We also hit for .436 hitting efficiency which is a credit to our setters, Katie West and Katie Latta, who were really giving us a lot of hittable balls. We were also able to transition into our hitting system very well and kept Longhorns off-balance throughout the match.”

In the Southwest match, O’Dea was 7-for-9 in serves with 3 aces. Pohl was 6-for-9 with 3 aces. Morgan Chitwood was 8-for-8 with 3 aces. Aufrecht was 10-for-15 hitting with 7 kills. Latta was 35-for-37 in sets with 7 assists. West was 30-for-32 with 11 assists.

“In the first game, we just let Southwest get out too far ahead and could not score enough points at the end to catch them,” Briggs said. “After six rotations, they had built an 11-8 lead and increased it to 16-11 on the next rotation. And, before Madeline Shaddock stepped up in her service rotation, the Roughriders had built a 24-18 lead. We managed to cut the lead to 24-22 before Southwest closed out the game.

“In the second game, we finally managed to build a 20-13 lead and were able to close out the game a few rotations later. We really blocked well and served toughed with seven aces. In addition, we kept our hitting errors down to a minimum. Morgan Chitwood and Kelsey O’Dea were really serving well in the game with five aces between them.

“In the third game, it was one of those things I hate as a coach. It was a race to 15-points. If an opponent server gets hot or you make too many mistakes, the game is over. And, we committed nine errors (serve receive aces, missed serves, and hitting errors). We simply shot ourselves in the foot. We fell behind 8-2 and really could not overcome our errors.

The sophomore season is over. The Chase County match for the sophomores will not be played due to a lack of players for Chase County. The junior varsity varsity will close out its season tonight. The sophomore team’s season record was 7-4.

Bison sophomore

volleyball team

places second

at DCS tourney

BENKELMAN -- The McCook Sophomores finished second at the Dundy County-Stratton Sophomore Tournament Saturday.

The Bison defeated Chase County Longhorns 25-23, 25-22 and Wauneta-Palisade Broncos 25-17, 25-9 in their first two matches.

McCook lost to Dundy County-Statton 28-26, 10-25, 15-11.

DCS and McCook went 2-1, but the Tigers won the title because of their win over McCook.

Kelsey Pohl was McCook’s top server in the Chase County match. She was 13-for-15 with 6 aces. Jayde Aufrecht was 23-for-26 hitting with 11 kills. Katie Latta was 64-for-67 in sets with 18 assists.

In the Wauneta-Palisade match, Pohl 11-for-12 in serves with 3 aces. Aufrecht 13-for-14 in hits with 6 kills. Latta was 27-for-30 in sets with 11 assists. Katie West was 20-for-20 with 7 assists.

In the Dundy County-Stratton match, Madeline Shaddock was 9-for-9 in serves with 5 aces. Pohl was 25-for-29 in hitting with 7 kills. Latta was 54-for-57 in sets with 12 assists. West was 20-for-20 with 7 assists.

“The Chase County match was really close throughout both games,” said McCook sophomore/junior varsity volleyball coach George Briggs. “The difference was at the end of both games as we were able to string four or five points on the final service rotations to secure the win. In the Wauneta-Palisade match, the sophomores again strung several nice runs of points that enabled us to win both games.

“In the Dundy County-Stratton match, the Tigers really played floor defense well. I think it became frustrating for us not to find the floor with many of our hits as we did in the earlier matches. The key to the match may have been at the end of the first game when we had a couple of chances with our serve to win it, but we were never able to finish the game.

“I think too that we were not moving as fast on the floor and not passing balls as well as we as we were in the earlier matches. We kept trying to play the ball out of position and throwing one-arm up in an attempt to play it.

“And, I think we were making some mental errors that we didn’t make in the earlier matches. For most part, however, the Sophomores really played at a pretty high level for the tournament.”