Lady Plainsmen 15-12 after SPVA

After a week of five games between the Benkelman triangular and SPVA tournament, the Lady Plainsmen volleyball team holds a 15-12 record with just two regular season games until sub-districts.

Benkelman Triangular

Last Tuesday, Oct. 12, Perkins County faced Hershey and Dundy County-Stratton.

Hershey was the first opponent for the Lady Plainsmen Tuesday afternoon, and though they played hard, coach Monica Cole said it could have gone better for the team.

They played two sets, with Hershey winning both 25-19.

“I was hoping that we would have played with a bit more hustle and energy against Hershey,” Cole said. “We played them to 19 points each set, but the way we were letting balls drop and not hustling to return it, I feel like we could have played a lot better.”

The individual stats however, Cole felt looked good. Meghan Bishop got six kills against Hershey. Libby Cole and Kailee Potts each had two aces. Juels Lyon had the most digs for the team with 17, and Bishop had 10. Lyon and Bishop also led in serves received with 13.

“I just know these girls have it in them to compete with anyone and I was bummed we didn’t give it our all that evening,” Cole said.

Dundy County-Stratton was the next opponent for Perkins County, and Cole said they came out and played hard in the first set.

The Lady Plainsmen fought hard to keep the game from going into three sets, and Cole was proud of them for battling and making sure that didn’t happen.

Perkins County won both sets played against DCS 25-23 and 25-11.

Samantha Patrick led the team in kills this game with nine, and she and Potts also led in aces, with three each. Lyon, Patrick and Potts each had six digs during the game. Potts led with nine assists with Libby close behind her at eight.

SPVA

Saturday, Oct. 16, Perkins County hosted the SPVA tournament, and Perkins County’s first opponent of the day was North Platte St. Pat’s.

The Lady Plainsmen took victory in their first set against NPSP, 25-23, but the St. Pat’s came back and took sets two and three, 25-19 and 30-28.

“We were so close to beating St. Pat’s!” Cole said. “The girls gave it their all in that game and battled the way I know they know how. We came up short, and had we won that game, I do feel our day would have been different. Sometimes games like that just mentally and physically take it out of you.”

The team, she added, read the court well against St. Pat’s, knowing what their setter was capable of with tipping and how to line up on the hitters a majority of the time.

“Most of our game play the first time around against St. Pat’s was our own errors,” Cole said. “There is a huge difference in our game when we take care of ourselves and keep the ball on our side for serving.”

Overall, she noted, the girls all played well, with Libby leading the team with 12 kills and 19 assists. Potts had 10 kills and 15 assists Bishop led in ace serves with three.

Next, the girls played Kimball who had lost to Hershey earlier in the tournament.

Perkins County “bounced back” according to Cole and defeated Kimball in two sets, 25-22 each, moving the Lady Plainsmen on to face Sutherland in their final game of the day.

Against Kimball, Potts had nine kills and Libby had 11 assists. Libby, Patrick and Bishop led the team in ace serves with two apiece.

After a long day of rough games, Cole said the team didn’t play their game with Sutherland as well as they could have, mostly because they were exhausted.

Sutherland defeated Perkins County in two sets, 25-17 in the first and 25-21 in the second.

“We didn’t have much of a break in between any of the games so the girls were spent,” Cole explained. “A lot of that is mental. Some of it is physical.”

Potts and Libby led the team in assists with six each, and Potts also led in kills, again with six, and Libby was just behind her with five. Cole also led with four ace serves, and Patrick had three.

Tuesday, Oct. 19, the Lady Plainsmen had an away game against Kimball. See next week’s newspaper for results on this game.

Sub-Districts soon

Thursday, Oct. 21, the Perkins County volleyball team will play their final regular season game of the year, a home game against Holyoke starting at 4:15 p.m.

Cole said the team is looking forward to one last home game and honoring the team’s seniors.

Class C2-11 subdistricts are set for Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 25 and 26, and as Bridgeport is the top seeded team with 1,223 wild card points as of Oct. 19 they will host the tournament.

Kimball is seeded fourth with 857 points as of Tuesday, and Perkins County and Sutherland are neck-and-neck for second and third seed in the tournament with just a six-point difference before the final week of regular season games is finished.