PC volleyball team heads into SPVA tournament Saturday

Last week, the Perkins County volleyball team hosted a triangular against Wauneta-Palisade and Garden County, and later in the week Chase County. The girls held a 11-8 record going into the week of matches, and came out 13-9.

The team also faced Hershey and Dundy County Stratton in Benkleman Tuesday, Oct. 12. Coach Monica Cole said they are hoping to start a big week off with a couple of wins at this game. Tuesday’s results will be available in next week’s edition.

PC Triangular vs Wauneta-Palisade and Garden County

“Tuesday was a big day for us getting back on track with wins,” said Cole. “The girls were ready to play and do just that.”

Perkins County’s first game Tuesday night, Oct. 5 was against Garden County, who was 16-5 going into the day’s games.

Perkins County earned their first win of the night, defeating their opponents 25-20 in the first set and 25-19 in the second.

“Our serving and offense won that game for us,” Cole said. “We had seven ace serves with Kailee Potts delivering four of those.”

She added that Libby Cole led the team with six kills, along with Samantha Patrick and Mallory McClenahan delivering five apiece, Kailee Potts with four and Autumn Anderson and Meghan Bishop each with three. Juels Lyon and Bishop both led in digs with nine each.

The team totaled 26 kills against Garden County.

Next up for the evening was 10-7 Wauneta-Palisade, against whom the girls earned their second win of the night. The first set was close at 25-23,  but Perkins County picked up a much bigger win in the second set, 25-13.

Potts led in ace serves against Wauneta-Palisade with three, followed by Lyon with two. Bishop led in kills with six, followed by five from Kailee Potts, and Anderson, Libby Cole and McClenahan all shared three apiece.

“Our blocking game was great against Wa-Pa!” Cole said. “Autumn led with two solo and two assisted, and Libby and Kailee both delivered two assisted blocks as well.”

Chase County

Thursday, Oct. 7, Perkins County once again hosted Chase County for a match.

Cole said they played them a week prior and knew they could compete with them better than we did the first time, “and we did!”

Lyon stepped up in her Libero position well Thursday evening, Cole added, and Patrick and Bishop also played great cross court defense.

Anderson, she continued, touches a lot of attacks to slow them down on blocking for the team to be able to play their offense, and Libby blocks well at the net also.

The Lady Plainsmen battled for a close first set, but fell to Chase County 25-22. Perkins County was able to take the second set 25-22, but fell in their final two sets for the evening’s games 25-16 and 25-13.

“We got ourselves in a couple of serve receive ruts in the last two sets,” Cole said. “It’s really hard to play a comeback game against a competitive team like Chase County. Kudos to them for not letting that gap they built lessen. It wasn’t from lack of trying on our end, we just couldn’t build the momentum back up in the last two sets.”

The team had 12 ace serves on the night against Chase County, which Cole notes is a huge accomplishment.

“We knew if we could get their offense out of system that we could play good ball with them,” she added.

Patrick had five of the 12 aces, along with 10 kills on the night. Bishop had 18 digs and Lyon had 15.

“I can’t tell you how proud I am of these girls and how fun it is to watch them play together and be excited about this game. Their passion for it shows and they have fought hard to compete well,” Cole said.

SPVA on Saturday

This year’s SPVA volleyball tournament will be held in Perkins County, utilizing both the main gym and Pritchett gym throughout the day.

Chase County, seeded first, has a bye in the first round of the tournament, and will face the winner of game one, between fourth seeded North Platte St. Pat’s and Perkins County in the fifth seed.

Game one is set to start at 10 a.m. in the main gym.

The loser of game one will face the loser of game two, between Hershey and Kimball, at 1 p.m. in Pritchett Gym.

The championship game is scheduled for 4 p.m. Saturday in the main gym.