The West Holt Lady Huskies improved their record to an impressive 11-3 on the season this past week with wins over Ord on Thursday, Sept. 14, and a tough tournament in Ord on Saturday, Sept. 16.
The Huskies began the week defending their home turf against the Ord Chanticleers, who came into the contest with a losing record but a chip on their shoulders. In front of an electrifying home crowd, West Holt would come out strong in set number one, pushing their way to a 25-20 victory. Set number two met a similar end, with the Huskies and Ord going back and forth nearly the entire set before the Huskies were able to pull away with a 25-19 victory.
With their backs against the wall, Ord was able to play their best set of the night against the Huskies. After a rough start, the Huskies would take a timeout to regroup, but Ord wouldn’t let their foot off the pedal, cruising their way to a 25-21 set three win against the Huskies.
After a short break between sets filled with numerous chants from the Husky crowd, West Holt would wake up in set number four, going back to playing to their full potential. The Huskies would take advantage of momentum gained in their favor to surge to a 25-20 victory in set number four, earning themselves the match victory.
One of the key components to the Husky victory was their success serving the ball. Throughout the year the Huskies have had some trouble getting the ball over the net at times. That was not the case on Thursday evening. The Huskies would earn themselves 11 service aces compared to just eight service errors. Ansley Galyen led the team with four aces, followed by Abby Davis and Avery Nemetz, with three each. The Huskies also dominated around the net, with a total of ten blocks in the match.
Leading the way for the Huskies at home was the duo of Galyen and Lainey Smith, who each contributed 10 kills. Smith also contributed 20 assists in the evening. Makinley Cadwallader also showed off her ability to cover the floor, earning an impressive team-leading 21 digs in the contest.
Following their victory against the Chanticleers, the Huskies would travel to Ord for a tournament on Saturday, Sept. 16.
The Huskies would find some struggles at the Ord tournament, losing four straight sets to the likes of Doniphan-Trumbull and Grand Island Central Catholic, two very solid teams that the Huskies don’t see very often.
While the Huskies couldn’t find victories in their first two games, they were able to put up some impressive stat-lines. Against D-T, Davis was able to earn herself five kills on just 13 attacks, while Smith was able to get four off of just 10 attacks.
Against the number one team in class C-1, GICC, Galyen was able to post an impressive number of 15 digs, while Cadwallader was able to post six kills.
After getting swept by both D-T and GICC, the Huskies would look to bounce back in their final game of the tournament against the Burwell Longhorns. The Huskies had already played and swept the Longhorns in their third game of the season and were looking to repeat that success.
The Huskies had their work cut out for them, as the 7-4 Burwell Longhorns were out to prove that they weren’t the same team West Holt had dominated just a month prior.
Both teams were hungry and winless on the day coming into the matchup, making for a relentless set number one, where the Huskies were able to fend off the Longhorns by a score of 28-26.
The Longhorns would refuse to go down without a fight, however, and would continue to claw and scratch in set number two. However, the Huskies would prove they have what it takes to win in close sets yet again and take down the Longhorns in set number two 25-23. This would give the Huskies the sweep over the Longhorns and improve their season record to 11-3.
After a tough weekend of competition, the Huskies have a chance to pick up some more victories as the squad heads to Niobrara-Verdigre on Tuesday, Sept. 19 to take on the 3-9 Cougars, followed by a home game against the 2-10 Boyd County Spartans on Thursday, Sept 21, and a home triangular on Saturday, Sept 23.