The Lady Patriots traveled to Estelline to take in part of the Estelline Volleyball Tournament. The team had a nice showing on Saturday and keep continuing to improve and getting consistent with their playing.
The Ladies opened the tournament by playing Great Plains Lutheran out of Watertown. In the first set, the Patriots found themselves down early. At one point they had a six point deficit. The Patriots would make it close at the end, but the Panthers would win set one 25-19. In the second set, the Patriots played point for point with the Panthers. The Patriots would eek out the win with a 25-23 set two score. In the deciding set, the Patriots would jump out to a lead. The Panthers would tie the set up at 13 as the Patriots used a time out. The Patriots would then rattle off five more points and not look back as they finished winning set three 25-17 and winning the match 2-1 over a quality team.
Offensively, The Patriots had 32 kills. Katelyn Schroeder tallied 10 kills and Ella Johnson followed with 7 kills. Lila Johnson would tally 19 assists. Schroeder would earn the only ace in the match. Defensively, the Patriots came up with 23 digs, led by Schroeder with 9 and Cambree Hoekman with 6. Isabel Gilbert had a big match at the net with 1 block solo and 2 block assists.
The Patriots moved on to the semi-final match and played the host school, Estelline-Hendricks. Starting the set off, the Patriots once again found themselves down most of the set. The ladies would come back and get within one, but would ultimately lose the set 23-25. Set two the Patriots played point for point with the Redhawks. The Redhawks would take the set two by a score of 25-23, and winning the match.
Offensively in the match, the Patriots would tally 19 kills. Schroeder and Ella Johnson each tallied 5 kills each to lead the team. Lila Johnson tallied 13 assists in the match. The lone ace by the Patriots came from Schroeder. The ladies tallied 12 digs, with Schroeder leading with 4 followed by Hoekman with 3. Rebecca Huizenga came up with the lone block in the match.
In the third place match of the day, the Patriots found themselves playing the Langford Lions, a fellow region opponent. In both sets, the Patriots jumped out to big leads in both sets and never looked back. The ladies would end up taking the match 2-0, by winning each set 25-18 and 25-14. The Patriots tallied 15 kills in the match, let by Schroeder with 6 kills and Huizenga followed with 3. Lila Johnson tallied 12 assists in the match. The Patriots tallied 6 aces in the match. Ella Johnson led the team with 4 aces. The team only tallied 6 digs with Hoekman tallying 3 and Schroeder 2. Gilbert also had another big match at the net with 1 solo and 3 assists blocks.
The Patriots (2-2) are back in action Tuesday night, as they travel to Redfield to take on the Pheasants. The Jr. High will kick off their season with two matches beginning at 4:00 p.m, followed by the JV and Varsity.