Losses take Lady Plainsmen’s record to 1-7

The Lady Plainsmen volleyball team added five games to their record last week, bringing their current season record to 1-7.

Perkins County hosted a triangular on their home court battling the Hitchcock County Falcons and the Wallace Wildcats on Tuesday, Sept. 4.

On Saturday, Sept. 8, the team traveled to Cozad for the Cozad Invitational where they took on the Gothenburg Swedes,  the Valentine Badgers and the Cozad Haymakers.

Hitchcock County

Perkins County came out fired up and ready to play Tuesday night in front of their home crowd. The Lady Plainsmen fought hard against the Falcons, showing some excellent skills, but the team’s overall chemistry was lacking, according to Head Coach Monica Cole and they were unable to cinch the win.

The Falcons defeated the Lady Plainsmen in two sets, 25-19, 25-20.

Wallace

In their second game of the night, Perkins County took on the Lady Wildcats. The Lady Plainsmen played an aggressive game against Wallace, but once again were denied the win.

“The student section was awesome and it kept the girls fired up,” said Cole in appreciation of the crowd supporting her team Tuesday night.

Wallace defeated Perkins County in two sets, 25-22, 25-22.

Gothenburg

Perkins County faced off with the Gothenburg Swedes in their first game of the Cozad Invitational on Saturday.

The Lady Plainsmen played hard in their first match of the tournament and were able to capitalize on unforced errors by the Swedes in the first set. The team also handled added adversity faced by rotation changes.

Although the Lady Plainsmen played a close first set, the Swedes were able to clutch the win. The second set saw defensive errors from the Lady Plainsmen and a lack of consistency throughout their play, allowing the Swedes to rack up points and pull away from Perkins County.

“Overall we still have a lot to work on defense wise and getting consistency throughout our whole game,” said Cole.

Gothenburg defeated Perkins in two sets, 25-22, 25-13.

Valentine

In their second game of the Cozad Invitational, Perkins County took on the Valentine Badgers.

The Lady Plainsmen came out flat and showed a definite lack of energy and enthusiasm in this match. They also had a lack of communication that the Badgers exploited and quickly gained points over the Lady Plainsmen.

“We ended up getting caught in a couple of rotations that we just couldn’t capitalize on nor dig ourselves out of,” explained Cole. Perkins County fell to Valentine, 25-6, 25-10.

Cozad

In their final match of the invitational, Perkins County battled the Cozad Haymakers.

The Lady Plainsmen managed to push passed their disappointment with the first two matches of the day and come out ready to play. The enthusiasm of the team showed from the start, as well as an improvement in their communication.

“The girls made some excellent plays and the opportunities were there, we just have to learn how to capitalize on those opportunities and use them for our good,” said Cole.

According to Cole, the team had several unforced errors throughout the tournament. “If we can get a handle on those, then we will be just fine,” she said.

Despite being a young team, Cole is proud of the hard work her team puts in and plans to continue pushing them to improve with every practice and game.“The past week was a humbling experience for all of us, myself included,” Cole said. “Mistakes were made and if they hadn’t been, then we wouldn’t learn. This week we learned a lot about ourselves, about our team and how to handle adversity.”

Next action

On Thursday, Sept. 13, Perkins County will travel to Big Springs for a triangular with the South Platte Blue Knights and the Paxton Tigers. The triangular begins at 5:30 p.m. with South Platte versus Paxton.

Saturday, Sept. 15, the team will travel to Bridgeport for tournament action beginning at 9 a.m.