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Chase County defeats Bison for McCook Invite title
McCook, Neb. -- Playing in their first tournament of the season on Saturday, the McCook Lady Bison fell just short of the title crown as they were beat by Chase County 2-0.
"I didn't think we served the ball all that great against Chase County, nor did we have the enthusiasm that we had against Alliance," said McCook head coach Dennis Troester following Saturday's championship match.
After taking a closely contested first set, Chase County looked in control the second set on their way to a sweep of the Lady Bison.
"That second set, I thought we did a lot of standing around, we didn't communicate, and we started feeling sorry for ourselves," Troester said. "We just hope to learn from how things turned out today."
The Longhorns have enjoyed plenty of success at the McCook Invite in recent years. With Saturday's win, Chase County (7-1) has now won the last three tournaments McCook has hosted. For Chase County head coach Jodie Schuller, however, that wasn't on her mind heading into Saturday's tournament.
"I had to ask the girls (on Thursday) if we won this tournament last season," Schuller said. "For us, it really is just one game, one set and one point at a time."
Facing a McCook squad that was coming off a big win over Alliance, the Longhorns showed poise in both sets to keep the Lady Bison on their heels.
"I thought we got better as the day went along," Schuller said. "In a tournament, you really can't gameplan for three different opponents, so you just have to be mentally prepared and I thought our girls did that today."
"McCook's a very good team, and Dennis (Troester) is awesome. This was a good win for us."
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McCook and Chase County both swept their semifinals matches. The Lady Bison defeated Alliance 2-0, which included a tightly contested 30-28 first set victory. Meanwhile, the Longhorns beat Cambridge 2-0.
"Alliance had chances to put us away that first set, and we battled back," Troester said. "That's a sign of how we've grown from a year ago. We've got a lot more confidence this year."
"Alliance is a big, physical team, bigger than some Class A schools. We were having success hitting the ball against them. We also did a great job of hitting short serves against them. We took them out of rhythm and got them out of sync. Those were all keys for us beating them."
Up next for Chase County will be a trip to Sidney (5-4) on Tuesday, Sept. 20. Schuller knows the quick turnaround means her team will have to mentally move on from Saturday's championship.
"We'll enjoy this over the weekend, then we have to get back to won on Monday," she said. "Sidney's a good team, and we'll need to come mentally prepared."
For McCook (5-2), they will travel to Holdrege next Saturday, Sept. 24, for a four-team tournament hosted by the Dusters.
"(Saturday) is the first time these girls have been in a tournament championship like this, so hopefully we learn from it," Troester said. "We have to learn from it, move on and be ready to go for the next one."