SEWARD, Neb. -- All good things must come to an end.
Playing in its first-ever district final, Class B No. 9 McCook fell to No. 8 Seward 3-0 (25-6, 25-23, 25-12) Saturday afternoon at Seward High School.
With the loss, McCook sees its record-breaking season come to an end with a 24-11 record.
Seward improves to 27-7 and advances to the Class B State Tournament in Lincoln.
The Lady Bison, just one win away from qualifying for its first state tournament appearance in school history, ran into a high-flying Seward squad.
The Lady Bluejays hammered McCook in the opening set with ace serve after ace serve, kill after kill. Seward built a 14-1 lead, which included three Sarah Brown aces, before a Bailey Honn termination gave McCook its second point.
The Lady Bluejays extended their lead to 21-2 before the opening frame ended with the two teams trading points. A Kayla Luebbe kill brought McCook’s worst set of the season to an end at 25-6.
“We were totally taken out mentally in the first set,” said McCook head coach Dennis Troester. “Seward served very tough and our passing totally took us out of any possible offense.”
The Lady Bison rebounded with a strong showing in the second set. McCook built early leads of 4-2 and 10-7 before a Riley Sis kill gave the Lady Bison their biggest lead of the match at 15-10.
The key turning point came after Seward, trailing 20-16, called timeout. The Lady Bluejays would mount a comeback that saw them score six of the next seven points to take its first lead at 22-21. McCook tied the set at 22-22 and 23-23 before Seward scored the final two points to win 25-23 and take a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five.
“We regrouped and played very well in the second set,” Troester said. “ We were leading 20-16 before two costly mental errors turned the momentum in Seward’s favor.”
Seward came out with another strong showing in the third. The Lady Bluejays built a 13-3 lead and never led by fewer than nine points the rest of the way.
McCook was outhit by Seward in total kills 39-20. The Lady Bluejays had a .326 hitting percentage to the Lady Bison’s .165.
Individually, Jaceea Hanson led the Lady Bison with nine kills on .280 hitting. Sis had six terminations on 26 attempts, while Cameron Lashley and Jaimee Radel each had two. Holli Thomas had 13 assists for McCook.
Seward was led by Camryn Opfer’s 12 kills. Lena Hughes and Rebekah Klenke each had nine terminations, while Sarah Brown had five. Anna Covalt and Jaci Opfer helped the Lady Bluejay offense with 17 and 11 assists, respectively.
The Lady Bluejays finished Saturday’s match with 10 ace serves. Brown led the category with five, while Covalt had three and Camryn Opfer and Klenke each had one.
Saturday was the final match for McCook’s 10 seniors.
Lady Bison seniors included Kyleana Blau, Jaden Bryant, Erika Fisher, Bailey Honn, Cameron Lashley, Brantleigh Morgan, JoAnn Neel, Haley Potthoff, Riley Sis and Holli Thomas.
The seniors were the first group at McCook to be coached all four years of high school by Troester, helped set the school-record win total two different seasons -- 20 in 2016 and 24 in 2017 -- win the school’s first-ever sub-district final and appear in the program’s first-ever district final.
Troester acknowledged that, while the Lady Bison missed out on making the state tournament, this year’s squad brought the program to new heights.
“We certainly would like to be in the state tournament, but we have gone farther than any other team in McCook volleyball history.”
A recap of the seniors’ feats will be in tomorrow’s McCook Gazette.
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