Cambridge, Southwest strong at McCook spike meet

Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette Kristin Jussel (2) and Shayla Dinnel (9) of Chase County watch the volleyball fly high over their heads during McCook Invitational tournament action against Cambridge Saturday at the Senior High gym. The Longhorns dropped a three-set decision to Cambridge, then Chase County lost to Southwest in the third-place finals.

Cambridge and Southwest probably don't want to talk about Minden after the 2010 McCook Invitational volleyball tournament.

The area teams both lost to the 10-3 Whippets in the McCook tournament played Saturday, Sept. 18 at two sites in McCook.

Cambridge faced Minden in the tournament championship game Saturday evening at the McCook Senior High School gym, and the Whippets won a 25-20, 25-13 decision. Southwest dropped a three-set decision to Minden (25-17, 20-25, 25-20) in the semifinals earlier Saturday.

Steve Kodad/McCook Daily Gazette Southwest blockers Allie McConville (7) and Jessica Porter (12) reach for the hit by Minden's Cassandra Choquette (4) during semifinal action Sept. 18 at the McCook Invitational volleyball tournament at the Senior High gym.

Cambridge struggled in the second set of the championship match getting any attack going against one of the top C-1 teams in the state.

"During the first set we were attacking them and getting after them," said Trojans head coach Katie VanWesten. "In the second set we just kind of set back on our heels and let them attack us. So we struggled there."

In the championship match against Minden, Cambridge was led by Holly Doyle with 4 kills and 1 ace serve. Lisa Malchow had 1 ace serve and 2 stuff blocks. Danielle Carpenter led the Trojans with 9 set assists.

Doyle had a strong game in the three-set win over Chase County (25-19, 22-25, 25-22) in the semifinals.

Doyle hit 16 kills to go with 15 defensive digs. Breezy Huxoll had 29 digs, and Tori Garcia had 15 digs. Carpenter had 6 kills, 7 digs and 15 set assists.

Brooke Juhl led Cambridge with 9 kills in the opening-round win over Sidney (19-25, 25-21, 25-14). Carpenter served 5 aces to go with 14 digs and 18 assists. Malchow had 7 kills and 3 blocks.

Cambridge also lost a 3-0 decision at Minden in a match last Thursday. Coach VanWesten said her team will learn from facing that tough competition.

"They're good, they're a good team," she said. "As long as our girls play well against them like they did, I don't mind. To see an attack like theirs is a big difference from what we normally see. It's good for us."

VanWesten was pleased with her team's effort throughout the tournament.

"I'm happy with how they played. The first couple games went really well," VanWesten said. "I think the first set of the Minden game went very well. It was just that very last set. Overall I think they had a good day."

Cambridge raised its record to 4-8.

Southwest struggles vs. Minden

Southwest head coach Dennis Troester said his team struggled early in the semifinal loss to Minden.

"I felt the first set we didn't come out ready to play -- we came out a little bit in awe, maybe," Troester said. "They were running a lot of misdirection, sending people going every which way. We kind of settled down a bit toward the end of that first set. We came out in the second set and played very well against them.

"The big key for us in the whole match, all three sets, was the passing game. We did a very poor job passing the ball in the first set and third set. We've got to pass the ball to have offense, we've got offense, we can be pretty tough."

Candace Malleck hit 13 kills against Minden. Madison Mousel added 6 kills for Southwest.

In opening-round action, Southwest topped a tough Decatur Community team from Oberlin, Kansas. The Roughriders topped Oberlin 25-22, 25-14.

"Very pleased, our kids came out ready to play Saturday morning," Troester said. "They played very, very well (vs. Decatur Community)."

Allie McConville had 13 kills and 2 blocks, and Candace Malleck added 10 kills and 2 blocks against Oberlin. The Red Devils were paced by Jordan Dreher with 11 kills and Kiah Blau with 5 kills. Rachelle Scott also had two blocks for Oberlin.

Rougnriders place third

Southwest earned a third-place finish with a 25-23, 25-23 win over Chase County in the finals Saturday. McConville had 13 kills and Malleck 6 for the Roughriders.

Coach Troester said he was pleased with his team's overall effort in Saturday's tournament. He said Southwest played strong defense all day, but the team must improve its passing game.

Kansas squad fifth

After the loss to Southwest, Decatur Community rebounded to win two straight matches and finish fifth in the McCook Invite.

Oberlin topped Alliance in three sets (25-19, 24-26, 25-20) in the consolation semifinals behind 22 kills and 3 blocks by Jordan Dreher. Kiah Blau added 13 kills and led the team with 5 blocks. Jori Diederich and Rachelle Scott each had 10 defensive digs.

The Kansas squad then topped Sidney in three sets (25-12, 22-25, 25-15) for fifth place.

Dreher had 11 kills and 10 set assists plus 4 ace serves. Blau also recorded 9 blocks and 5 kills, and Scott had 4 kills and 4 blocks.

Coach Sherry Ruf said her team did not maintain momentum in their tournament matches.

"We would play well for several volleys and then got back on our heels and wouldn't move to the ball. We had too many missed served that kept us from keeping our intensity going.

"The girls did play the net well and stayed positive throughout the day."

Decatur Community improved its season record to 16-2.

Chase County fourth

Chase County opened the tournament with a 25-19, 25-16 win over host Bison. The Longhorns then lost to Cambridge in the semifinals, and dropped the straight set decision to Southwest for third place.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: