EADS VOLLEYBALL GOES 3-0 THIS WEEK
The Eads Eagles are enjoying perhaps their strongest start in a few years as they are now 4-2 in the early season after losing their first two matches and then putting together a rather impressive three-day marathon on Thursday, Friday and Saturday that gave them three straight wins.
It took them just a second to get going with a new coach and utilizing the talents of a handful of freshmen who had never seen a varsity high school court, but once they did, they are starting to play some really excellent volleyball. Fans could see there was potential there in the home opener with Springfield where they took last year’s state-qualifying Longhorns to 5 games before losing. They fell one more time when they didn’t show up in Wiley, but obviously learned some valuable lessons about how to show up to compete.
This week, however, was seemingly a new team as Eads controlled a very feisty Hi-Plains Patriots’ defense in four games winning, 3-1, in scores of 25-23, 25-18, 23-25, and 25-22 on Thursday night in Seibert. The Eagles appeared a little fatigued at the end of game 3 where they were leading huge 23-16 but allowed the Patriots to stick around and sneak in for the win. However, the Eads group was able to deal with fatigue in game 4 and get the win and the match.
In Hi-Plains Eads had an astounding 93 digs as the Patriots just kept picking up attack after attack coming from the Eads arsenal. The Eagles managed to slip in 35 team kills which was just 29.7% kill percentage proving the Lady Patriots were very adept on defense. Eads served extremely well with 11 aces at a 94.5% serving performance.
Senior Maggie Haase led the way for Eads with 11 kills, 3 aces and 2 blocks.
Senior Lisi Buller pounded down 10 kills on the outside, put down 2 ace serves and had 19 digs.
Freshman middle hitter Kara Wilson was blocked many times but kept hitting getting 5 attacks to go down, getting 1 ace serve and picking up 17 attack balls on defense.
Freshman outside hitter Tailee Weeks-Johnson also had 5 kills and 2 ace serves.
Sophomore right side hitter and utility setter Aless Paez had 2 ace serves and 17 digs.
Senior setter Samantha Courkamp led her troops with 28 assists, 1 ace serve and 19 digs.
Friday night saw the Lady Eagles at home hosting Sierra Grande. Eads dominated the Panthers in three straight games and had 39 kills hitting at a 58% performance. The stat of the game, however, was the 30 ace serves by Eads who served at a 96.1% clip.
Haase had 5 kills and 2 ace serves.
Wilson had 6 kills, 7 ace serves and 2 blocks.
Weeks-Johnson led the Eads attack with 15 powerful kills, 3 ace serves and 8 digs.
Buller added 10 kills from the outside, put down 8 ace balls, and had 19 digs.
Paez had 6 ace serves, 9 digs and 7 assists from the back side.
Courkamp added 4 ace serves and 25 assists to her hitters.
Although there are no stats for the Saturday night game in Eads against Kim/Branson, the Eads Lady Eagles continued to play strong attack ball winning the contest 3-0.
Eads now has just one game this week and it’s on Friday night during the Kiowa County Fair when they host the Greeley County Jackrabbits from Tribune, KS at 5:00 pm
KIT CARSON GRABS TWO WINS OVER THE WEEK
The Lady Wildcats are also playing some exceptional volleyball and are now 5-1 on the early season. They just picked up a big win over powerhouse Limon in five games, winning 3-2 in scores of 21-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-22 and 15-12. The Limon game would be the fourth match that the Wildcats took to 5 games and won. They are currently 4-0 in five game marathons.
On Friday night the Wildcats took care of a struggling Genoa-Hugo group in three straight sets, 3-0.
No stats were available for either game this week.
The Wildcats will be busy this week as they travel to Springfield on Thursday, September 8 to take on a strong Longhorn group. Then on Friday they will be at McClave for a key conference contest with the 3-0 Lady Cards. Finally, they will finish the road week in Kiowa on Saturday afternoon.
CHEYENNE WELLS 1-3 ON SEASON
They Cheyenne Wells Lady Tigers are struggling to gain their footing as they are currently sitting on a 1-3 record after they lost to Saint Francis, KS last Thursday in five games, 3-2, by set scores of 14-25, 25-16, 20-25, 25-16, and 7-15.
Then on Friday they lost to a very tough Idalia group who is currently undefeated at 5-0 in set scores of 12-25, 17-25, and 20-25.
No stats have been available for Cheyenne Wells volleyball yet.
Things don’t get easier for the Tigers this week, however, as they have a conference date with McClave at home on Thursday. The Cards are currently undefeated and will be tough out for Cheyenne Wells. However, this should be a good match up between two teams who have strong athletes on both sides of the net.
