Kit Carson Wildcats
The Kit Carson Lady Wildcats are currently sitting at 2-3 overall on the early volleyball season with numerous games lined up in the coming week.
First the Lady Wildcats placed fourth in their own tournament being defeated by Yuma (3-0) and Simla (3-0). They did grab a win over Akron, 3-0. They then continued to have mixed results, gaining a strong win over Burlington, 3-1, but losing to a very good Otis group, 3-0.
The first game of the season was in the Kit Carson Tournament where they squared off with Simla losing in an exciting match, 3-1, in game scores of 13-25, 16-25, 25-21, and 12-25. In that game the Wildcats produced 21 kills but hit at a slow 13.9% success rate. They served at an 89.9% success rate but committed 8 serve receive errors.
Leading the way for the Wildcats against Simla was Lindsey Mayhan with 7 kills, 3 aces, 2 blocks and 17 digs. Freshman Avery Johnson started out well in her first preps varsity game with 5 kills, 2 aces, 21 digs and 4 assists. Senior Paige Booker-Rady added 4 kills and 3 blocks. Shay Rady had 14 assists.
The Akron game was a fast one with the Cats gaining the advantage in game scores of 25-14, 25-20, and 25-14. Booker-Rady led the way with 13 kills. Mayhan added 9 kills. Johnson had 6 kills and 4 aces. Rady added 28 assists.
Finally, in the third-place game of the KC Tournament against Yuma the Cats started out slowly and were controlled by the Indians in game scores of 25-20, 25-18, and 25-19.
On Thurs., Aug. 24 Kit Carson traveled to Burlington and came away with a 3-1 win in set scores of 25-20, 25-13, 20-25, and 25-23. Both teams had 30 kills in the contest, but Kit Carson’s 11 ace serves was the difference.
Leading the way against Burlington were three hitters including Mayhan, Johnson, and Booker-Rady all with 7 kills. Johnson added 6 aces. Mayhan and Booker-Rady each had 3 blocks.
Nadaya Buttry and Ashlee Koch added 5 kills and 4 kills respectively. Shay Rady ran the show with 24 assists to her hitters.
Last Friday the Cats hit a wall when they met up with a very strong program at Otis. They would lose in three quick games in set scores of 14-25, 14-25, 13-25.
Booker-Rady had 9 kills, while Shay Rady and Mayhan each added 4 kills.
Kit Carson now faces a series of strong teams starting with Limon on Thursday night right before going to print. They then travel to Hugo on Friday night. Next week, the Lady Cats will host Springfield on Thursday, Sept. 7 and then Kiowa at home on Saturday, Sept. 9.
Cheyenne Wells Tigers
The Cheyenne Wells Lady Tigers are currently 1-3 on the– early season but Coach Sarah Hyle’s crew is athletic and should start making some noise as they continue to improve. Over the first couple of weeks of play they have met up with some strong teams that have challenged them.
They won their season opener against South Baca in 3 games to 1 with set scores of 25-18, 25-22, 29-31, and 25-14. In that long contest the Tigers had 45 kills compared to the Patriots 13 kills. They also pounded out 16 aces.
Junior Paige Ryser has been leading the way on the offensive attack and had 12 kills and 3 ace serves against South Baca. She also contributed 14 assists to her hitters.
Sophomore Aubry Carroll has turned into a good hitter putting down 10 kills against South Baca.
Junior Savannah Worley added 9 kills and 4 ace serves. Izzy Trevino-Lopez also had 9 kills and 10 digs.
Sophomore Aliyah Muth has been adequately running the floor with 5 ace serves, 10 digs and 22 assists.
After that first successful contest the Tigers then met up with some very strong teams including Stratton that looks to be a contender at the state tournament this year. They are led by three seniors in Kali Fox, Sedonia Isenbart, and McKenna Notter. Stratton would defeat Cheyenne Wells easily in game scores of 25-15, 25-9, and 25-14.
In the Stratton game Ryser had 3 kills and 2 aces. Carroll and Worley each added 3 kills. Muth had 6 assists.
Fox added 6 kills for Stratton while Isenbart had 4 kills and Notter added 5 more.
Cheyenne Wells then welcomed St. Francis, KS and Idalia to the Tiger gym on Thursday night, Aug. 31 and came away with two losses in the round-robin tournament.
Next week things don’t get any easier as the Lady Tigers will face up in a league contest with McClave in the Tiger’s Den on Tues., Sept. 5. McClave is thus far undefeated on the season. n
