Bison spikers outslug Southwest in 5 games

Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Grant Strunk/McCook Daily Gazette McCook Bison senior Ashley Palic, right, hammers one of her 21 record-setting kills Tuesday night against Southwest's Candace Malleck (30). Palic finished the night with 21 kills, 7 digs and 1 ace serve. The Bison won the match in five games at the McCook High School gym 25-23, 21-25, 30-28, 17-25, 15-13.

The McCook Bison varsity volleyball team outlasted and outslugged a Southwest team that entered the showdown at the MHS gym with a No. 7 ranking in Nebraska Class C-2 by the Omaha World-Herald.

McCook defeated Southwest in five games 25-23, 21-25, 30-28, 17-25, 15-13.

The Bison, who defeated the Roughriders earlier this season at the McCook Invitational, improved to 14-11. Southwest dropped to 17-5.

"Both teams gave a tremedous effort tonight," said McCook varsity volleyball coach Krystal Weber. "We knew coming into the match that Southwest was going to play us more aggressively than they did in our invite. We told the girls that there was a great possibility that it could be a five-game match, so we needed to be ready both mentally and physically for that.

"We also told the girls that Southwest would probably come into the match trying to serve us aggressively to get us out of system in our offense. They did just that, as we passed the ball extremely poorly out of serve receive, giving up 20 points in the match to serve receive errors.

"Games 1, 3, and 5 were hard fought battles back and forth. I was extremely proud of our kids for stepping up and finishing those games. In Game 2, both teams exchanged multiple opportunities for game point a number of times.

"We were disappointed in our mental lapses in Games 2 and 4, however. When game 5 rolled around, we were very confident, as we practice a 15-point game with consequences focusing on serving and hitting errors each day in practice prior to every match.

"It was a great atmosphere for volleyball. Hats off to both teams for their efforts. Ashley Palic also deserves a special recognition for setting the school record for most kills in a match with 21 tonight as well. We need to shift our focus to the three other tough matches we have this week, starting with North Platte on Thursday.

"We have to eliminate the mental lapses in our serve recieve and serving. You can't give up 33 points to another team because of silly serving and serve receive errors, especially when you are in tight matches."

McCook plays at North Platte Thursday (7:30 p.m.) and hosts Ogallala and Scottsbluff Saturday (noon). Southwest plays at Gothenburg Saturday.

McCook def. Southwest

25-23, 21-25, 30-28, 17-25, 15-13

McCook stats

Ace serves: Swanhorst 2, Powell 1, Baumbach 1, Watkins 1, Palic 1.

Kills: Palic 21, Powell 15, Swanhorst 13, Bryant 5, Watkins 3.

Assists: Baumbach 27, Watkins 20, Bryant 4.

Blocks: Powell 0.5, Swanhorst 0.5.

Digs: Bryant 17, Baumbach 13, Swanhorst 13, Powell 11, Watkins 11, Krepcik 9, Palic 7.

Southwest JV volleyball team beats McCook -- The McCook High School junior varsity volleyball team dropped a 25-14, 25-16 decision to Southwest Tuesday night at the McCook High School gymnasium.

Kelsey Pohl was 10-of-13 hitting with 3 kills. Katie Latta was 28-for-34 setting with 5 assists.

"We had beaten Southwest earlier in the season in two very close sets," said McCook coach George Briggs. "This match wasn't close at all. We just did not seem like we were ready to play. We had trouble passing their serves and our attacks on our side of the net were totally disorganized.

"We always strive to 'better the ball' after it leaves our hands. It didn't happen last night. We passed a serves poorly, we forced sets and then tried to make difficult shots in our hitting selections. We also had one of the worse nights of serving for the season. We need to work on simplifying the game. We were trying to make it too difficult.

"I think most of the season we have played with some fire and passion on our side of the net. I didn't see it last night. It will be a real test for the junior varsity on Thursday when we travel to North Platte and on Saturday. Ogallala and Scottsbluff come to town for triangular along with their varsity teams. All three of these teams will give us problems if we don't come prepared to play."

McCook sophomores volleyball team defeats Southwest -- The McCook High School sophomore volleyball team defeated Southwest 25-19, 25-27, 25-10 Tuesday night at the McCook High School gymnasium.

The Bison sophomores improved to 2-3.

Morgan Schaeffer was 21-of-22 serving and was 21-of-22 setting with 10 assists. Morgan Jones was 6-of-9 serving with 5 aces and 14-of-19 hitting with 5 kills.

"It was nice to see the McCook sophomores play a complete match," Briggs said. "They hit in positive numbers and our setters were able to spread the attack attempts and kills around. I think the difference in the match was our serving. The sophomores served 74 times with 23 aces and only 13 missed serves. We were able to keep Southwest off balance with our serving.

"We still need to work on pass receiving of serves, but we seemed to be more aggressive at the net than at any other time this season. I also thought Morgan Schaeffer did a good job of setting the ball to our hitters.

"Bonnie Dominguez came in and played the rightside in the front row and did a nice job. Morgan Schaeffer did a very good job keeping us organized on our side of the net and hitting and setting. Morgan Jones is also becoming a pretty steady player in the front row.

"We seemed to be in good control of sets one and two and had our chances to win the match in two straight sets in the second set. In the set, we had more trouble passing Southwest's serves which caused us to struggle on offense."

The Bison sophomores' next match is Thursday at North Platte.

Jessica Porter led Southwest's C team with 9 points and 4 digs. Anissa Morosic had 5 points and 2 digs and Madison Mousel led in attacks with 4.

Helen Solberg added in 3 points for Southwest, Tiffany Quadour had 1, Kourtney McConville had 3, Jordan May had 1, Mattie Uerling added in 2 and Holli Oltmer posted 4 points.

Cambridge takes three games from Hitchcock County -- Cambridge rolled by Hitchcock County High School's volleyball team 25-19, 25-12, 25-21 Tuesday.

Dani Carpenter posted 10 points for the Trojans. Carpenter also had 3 aces and 2 digs and Bailey Soucie had 3 aces, 28 assists and 9 points.

Frankie Petersen had 10 kills, 11 digs and 3 ace blocks and Traci Keyser had 14 kills, 7 digs and 2 ace blocks and aces. Lisa Malchow had 4 assists and Chelsey Moyer had 10 digs.

Cambridge 25 25 25

Hitchcock County 19 12 21

Cambridge scoring: Petersen 3, Moyer 8, Carpenter 10, Keyser 2, Long 5, Soucie 9.

Maywood clips Sutherland -- Maywood's volleyball team defeated Sutherland 25-16, 20-25, 25-23, 25-21 Tuesday at Sutherland.

Kadee Arensdorf led the Maywood girls in serving with 14 points, 3 aces and had 20 assists and 14 digs.

Melody Norgaard and Susan Koester both had 11 points. Norgaard also had 6 kills and Koester had 3 aces, 15 kills and 22 digs. Ashlee Solie put in 17 assists and MaKayla Gardner had 14 digs and 15 kills.

DCS, Perkins 1-1 at Grant -- Dundy County-Stratton's volleyball team went 1-1 in the Perkins County triangular Tuesday.

The Tigers won over Perkins County 25-22, 20-25, 25-16, but lost to Hershey 25-16, 16-25, 16-25.

Perkins County also went 1-1 after losing to the Tigers, the Plainsmen defeated Hershey 25-15, 14-25, 25-15.

Mackenzie Hite led Perkins County against the Tigers. Hite had 22 assists, 5 blocks and 2 kills. Tanya Metcalf had 11 blocks and 8 kills and Brooke Lee had 13 blocks, 2 assists and aces and 7 kills.

"We kept DC-Stratton on their toes," said Grant coach, Penny Hite. "We had very tough scoring against a good hitting team. We came from behind in the first set to keep us confident going into set 2.

"We played much better tonight all around, though and I am proud of these girls for their effort. A good way to go into the SPVA on Thursday.

Hite once again led the team in assists against Hershey. Hite had 23 assists, 7 aces, 11 digs, 8 blocks and 3 kills.

Metcalf had 5 kills, 2 ace blocks and 10 blocks and Lee had 9 kills, 1 ace block, 3 blocks and 3 digs.

Jessica Day led in digs with 15 and Brittany Pofahl had 12.

Wauneta-Palisade downs Medicine Valley -- Wauneta-Palisade and Medicine Valley hit the volleyball court Tuesday. The W-P Broncos defeated the MV Raiders in three sets, 25-16, 25-19, 25-20.

The Broncos take a break and return to the floor on Monday in the first round of the Republican Plains Activities Conference Tournament.

The Raiders continue action on Thursday at home Arapahoe and Friday with Elwood.

Wauneta-Palisade 25 25 25

Medicine Valley 16 19 20

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: