PCS volleyball splits season-opening triangular

by Diane Stamm

Grant tribune-sentinel

The Perkins County volleyball team kicked off its season Aug. 25 with a home triangular against Sutherland and Creek Valley.

PCS Head Coach Monica Cole said her team was pretty raw in its rotation at the beginning of the evening against Sutherland. 

The Plainsmen fell behind 1-12 in set one, but Cole said the girls settled in midway through the first set and did a good job of coming back and battling. 

Gracie Loy served two aces and led PCS on a six-point run to cut the score to 13-19. Perkins County couldn’t get any closer and lost the set 18-25.

PCS led 11-8 through the first six rotations of the second set, however soon found the match tied at 13. Although the set stayed close, the Plainsmen couldn’t regain the lead and lost 20-25.

Cole said her team showed a lot of progress in a fast paced, short amount of time. 

After watching Sutherland sweep Creek Valley, Perkins County was back on the floor to take on the Storm.

Cole said her team came out ready to compete in the match.

Kailee Potts had five kills and Libby Cole had nine assists.

Perkins County serving was locked in, ending the night at 92.3% compared to 77.6% for the Sailors.

PCS jumped out to an early lead in the match, 6-1, only to see Creek Valley crawl its way back into it. The Plainsmen led 22-17 but found their backs to the wall when Creek Valley tied the set at 23. PCS got the side out and took the 25-23 win.

The close set was a sign of things to come. Perkins County led through the first half of the second set, several times by as many as three points. With the set tie at 16, the Storm had the answers. PCS was out scored 4-9 down the stretch of the 20-25 loss.

Points came in chunks during the third set. The Plainsmen fell behind 0-4, but worked their way back to take a 12-9 lead. The match was far from over. The teams traded points and entered the final stretch tied at 19. Charis Goodell led PCS on a five-point run from the service line to set up match point. Creek Valley made one last run, pulling to within one point, before PCS sided out to take the 25-23 win.

“We had a couple of four or five point leads and then we would let them creep back in. We will be working on finishing better throughout the season,” Cole said, adding, she was proud of the girls for persevering and finishing when it came down to the wire.

“We’ve been on the other end of that in the past and I feel like we’re finally getting to where we can battle to the finish,” Cole said.

Potts finished with 11 kills, while Cole had 12 assists.

Up next

Serve receive will be critical for PCS over the coming weeks.

“Serve receive needs to be better for us to not run our setters all over the court and to get an efficient offense going,” Cole said. “Anyone that we play always seems to bring their best game against us, so we have to be ready to play on Tuesday against Brady and South Platte.”

The Plainsmen traveled to Brady Tuesday for a triangular with the Eagles and South Platte. PCS will host North Platte St. Pat’s (2-1) Thursday. A triangular with Hitchcock County and Wallace is on the schedule for Sept. 6 in Trenton.

Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022

PCS 18 20

Sutherland 25 25

PCS SHS

11 Kills 18

4 Total Blocks 2

3 Serving Aces 8

28 Digs 23

11 Assists 17

Attack Set Serve Def Blk

PLAYER SP K PCT ASST ACES PCT DIG Tot

C. Johnson 2 0 0.000 0 0 0 4 0

L. Cole 2 2 -0.182 9 0 100 6 2

G. Loy 2 0 0.000 0 2 100 2 0

K. Potts 2 5 0.000 2 0 100 6 0

C. Goodell 2 0 -0.667 0 0 80 3 0

H. Bishop 2 2 0.167 0 1 71.4 1 0

T. Peterson 2 0 -0.500 0 0 0 0 0

M. McClenahan 2 2 -0.286 0 0 100 6 0

Team Totals 2 11 -0.122 11 3 92.3 28 2

Attack Set Serve Def Blk

PLAYER SP K PCT ASST ACES PCT DIG Tot

C. Johnson 3 0 0.000 1 0 100 10 0

L. Cole 3 4 0.083 12 1 90.9 13 6

G. Loy 3 0 0.000 0 1 86.7 1 0

K. Potts 3 11 0.047 7 2 76.9 7 0

C. Goodell 3 2 -0.111 0 1 93.3 6 2

H. Bishop 3 3 -0.050 0 0 57.1 3 0

T. Petersen 3 1 -0.200 0 0 0 1 2

P. Franklin 2 0 0.000 0 0 0 1 0

M. McClenahan 3 3 0.111 1 0 80 8 0

Team Totals 3 24 0.01 21 5 84.3 50 6