Slow start leads to Great Finish
By Sarah Klinetobe
October 18, 2009
Slow start leads to Great Finish
The Mustang varsity team had a busy week on the court, playing five games total for the week. They started the week out on Tuesday night with a triangular at home with Scribner-Snyder and West Point-Beemer. The Mustangs first played Scribner-Snyder. The first set was a slow start for the Mustangs as they fell behind early and lost 13-25. The second set was more intense, but the Mustangs couldn’t stop Scribner-Snyder and came up short 21-25. Leading in service from the line was Alyssa Estes (7/7), followed by Dasi Sieh and Miranda Clausen (6/6). Serve receives were led by Sam Unger with 8/8. Offensively, Sam Unger led with 15 good spikes, which included three kills. Shannon Pestel had nine good spikes, including four kills. Dasi Sieh had six set assists and Whitney Heppner played strong at the net with four blocks. Leading defensively was Clausen and Kennedy Cheyney, with eleven digs each.
The Mustangs then faced West Point-Beemer. A quick WP-Beemer team out hustled the Mustangs with scores of 11-25 and 10-25. Unger and Sieh, would lead the team in serving 5/5 each. Unger had eleven serve receives to the target, which helped Sieh gain five set assists. The Mustangs only recorded a total of eight kills for the game, Heppner and Pestel each had three, and Unger had two. Heppner also had three solo blocks from the net and one assist block with Unger. Libero, Cheyney, would lead defensively with seven digs, followed by Unger with six.
With only one day off, the Mustangs begun their conference tournament play on Thursday in Wisner-Pilger. The first round of action placed the Mustangs against Pender. The Mustangs had previously beaten the Pendragons earlier in the season but the Pendragons came to play volleyball that night and wouldn’t let anything touch the ground. The Mustangs lost in two sets, 18-25 and 17-25. Estes led in serving with 7/7 from the line with one ace serve. Unger led in serve receives with 13 to the target, giving Sieh twelve set assists. Unger had five kills for the game, followed by Heppner with four. Heppner, Melissa Leaver, and Pestel each had one solo block at the net. Cheyney led in digs with fourteen, followed by Sieh with seven.
Since the Mustangs lost their first round conference game, it put them in the Bronze Tournament bracket on Saturday in Oakland-Craig. The Mustangs had the early game and the girls showed all the teams that they came to play volleyball. First to face the Mustangs was Oakland-Craig. The girls came out on fire and hustled all over the court, pounding O.C. in two sets 25-18 and 25-12. The Mustangs would serve forty-seven times with only one missed serve. This was the highest service percentage in a game all year for the Mustangs at 98%. Unger served 17/17 with four aces, Clausen 10/10 with two aces, Sieh 8/8 with one ace, Leaver 2/2 with one ace, Kelsey Bernbeck 2/2, and Heppner 1/1. Cheyney led in serve receives with six, followed by Unger with five. Sieh had nine set assists for the game. Kills were led by Unger with six, followed by Clausen with four, Heppner and Leaver each had three. Heppner had the only block recorded for the game. Cheyney led in digs with seven, followed by Clausen with six.
With only a five minute break in between, the Mustangs wanted to start the next game facing Logan View. Again, the girls were on fire and came away with another impressive win in two sets, 25-10 and 25-22. Sieh and Estes would lead in serves with 11/11 each. Clausen led in serve receives with nine to the target. Sieh had eleven set assists. The Mustangs dominated in kills with a total of twenty-two recorded for the game. Unger led with ten, followed by Clausen with four, Heppner with three, Leaver and Tiffany Hendrickson with two each, and Sieh with one. Unger and Hendrickson each had two solo blocks from the net and Heppner had one. Digs were led by Clausen with twelve, followed by Cheyney with six. This win gave the Mustangs the title as the Bronze Tournament Champions.
JH Volleyball Ends Season with Winning Records
The season ended for the JH Mustangs last Tuesday with a home game against Schuyler. The 7th Grade A team played first and won the game in three sets, 25-4, 13-25, and 15-9. Leading scorers for the game was Braska Patterson and Kirsten Weis with 13 points each. Patterson’s 13 points came from one service rotation. Next to take the court was the 7th Grade B team. They also played hard and came away with a win for the night in three sets, 25-12, 24-26, and 15-7. Leading scorer was Britanni Sothen with 16 points. Sothen served seven of those points off of one service rotation and another eight points off the next service rotation. Following Sothen in scoring was Journee Trimble with six points. The 8th Graders then took the floor for the last time as JH players. They were short three team players due to illness which left them with only seven players. They battled each set, but came up short of the win, losing in three sets, 23-25, 25-12, and 6-15. Leading in scoring was Rachel Shafer with 11 points, followed by Siera Zach with 8 points.
The 7th Grade A team ended the season undefeated with a 5-0 record. The 7th Grade B team ended 4-1 and the 8th Grade team ended 3-2. All the girls worked hard throughout the season and improved from the beginning of the season to the end.
