Area teams shine at Ansley-Litchfield Tournament
ANSLEY - There was plenty of area high school volleyball action to go around, on Sept. 26 at the Ansley-Litchfield volleyball tournament held in Ansley. Arcadia-Loup City and Ansley-Litchfield ended the day with a 2-1 mark, Sumner- Eddyville- Miller was 1-2, and Sandhills-Thedford finished at 0-3.
In one of the first matches of the day, S-T matched up against A-LC.
In set one, the Rebels took an early 5-4 lead. Later on, they had a 1513 advantage after Halie Kaslon came up with a kill.
Kaslon followed that up with an ace serve that widened the gap to four at 18-14.
At the net, sophomore Tatum Kapustka was able to come up with a block that put A-LC on the cusp of a set win at 24-15. After a kill by S-T, the Rebels won the set on the next point 25-16.
A-LC picked up where they left off in set two, taking an early 9-5 lead after a kill by Tatum Kapustka.
The Knights never gave up and found a way to recover from the deficit, tying it at 19-19 late in the set. Taylor Weber’s kill at the net put S-T up 22-20.
Tenley Rasmussen was also able to get in on the action registering a kill in the middle to make it 24-20.
The Rebels would make it interesting late with four straight points, capped off with an ace by Ellie Oxford. S-T found a way to rebound from this late surge and won set two 26-24.
In set three, both teams went back and forth with each team trading points and momentum. As a result, it was tied 21-21 near the end.
It was A-LC who went on a four-point run that was started by a kill by Kapustka. Danica Heil registered a kill on the final point for the Rebels, to give them a 25-21 set win and 2-1 match victory.
“That’s what we’ve been striving for since the beginning of the season,” A-LC head coach Dusti VanSlyke said. “Just being a young team and an inexperienced varsity team we have been trying to figure out the lineup that works best for us. Playing Gibbon earlier in the week really helped us going into the tournament.”
Leaders for A-LC in the match were Kaputska with eight kills and three blocks and Kaslon with two ace serves, seven kills, three blocks, and eight digs.
Both Brea Branic and Rasmussen had eight kills for S-T. Madison Glidden and Cylee Jameson ended with 20 digs apiece.
In the other first-round game, A-L played against S-E-M. Similar to earlier in the week in Sumner, the Spartans got beat by the Mustangs 25-14 and 25-19. Leading S-E-M was Mikah O’Neill with seven kills and Adilynn McFarland with five. Ellie Guthard had 18 digs in the
match.
For A-L, sophomore Kaylee Rohde ended with six kills and Audrey Hogg had four. Rohde also led the team with 14 digs in the match.
In their second game of the day, A-LC took the court against Amherst. Back on Sept.3, they lost to the Broncos in two sets.
It wasn’t any different Saturday as the Rebels lost 11-25 and 18-25. The team played much better in set two, but it was too hard to overcome Amherst’s two freshman Hannah Herrick and Saryn Prickett who both had eight kills.
A-LC was led by Kaslon who had one ace, four kills, and eight digs. Oxford had an ace, five kills, and two blocks.
After their loss in the previous match to S-E-M, the Spartans stayed on the court to play North Central in their second match of the day. They won set one 25-22 and lost the next set by the same score 22-25.
In set three, A-L jumped out to a commanding 14-7 lead. North Central made it interesting late as they cut the deficit to two at 1715.
A kill by Hogg in the middle made it 19-15 late.
Carlie Bailey added to the lead with a kill of her own extending the lead to 24-17. The Spartans used the momentum from that point to close the set and match 25-18.
Rohde had nine kills in the match for A-L and Bailey ended with five.
S-T was the next to take the court against Amherst. They lost 16-25 in the first set and 8-25 in set two.
Branic had four kills for the Knights and Jameson had three.
After having success in the first match against A-L, S-E-M struggled to gain momentum in their next match against North Central. Big deficits in both sets were too much to over for the Mustangs as they lost 19-25 and 21-25 to the Knights.
Audrey Reiter was the team leader with four kills and O’Neill had ten digs.
After round-robin play was over, A-L moved on to play S-T in the fifth and sixth place match. The Spartans lost set one 22-25 but turned around to win set two 25-21 and set three 25-8.
Rohde had nine for A-L and Peyton Henry came up with three aces.
For the Knights, they were led by Branic with 13 kills and Weber who had four blocks.
“We were pleased to walk away with two wins this weekend,” A-L head coach Jamee Smith said. “Both teams were hard wins, but I think the wins are key for a positive move into the next two-week schedule. We play some hard teams and travel a bunch so those wins will propel us into our upcoming schedule.”
Even though the Knights didn’t win a game, head coach Janet Victory was happy with her team’s effort. She feels they played some of their best volleyball yet.
A-LC was the next team to take the court, in the third and fourth place match against North Central. The Rebels were able to win in three sets 25-13, 11-25, and 25-22.
The team was paced by Heil with one ace, five kills, and two blocks. Kaslon added seven kills and 12 digs.
In the championship game, S-E-M was matched up against Amherst the only undefeated team on the day. Again, the Mustangs were not able to get out of their own way with errors, and as a result, lost 12-25 and 13-25.
O’Neill had five kills and 13 digs and Rohde had two kills and 14 digs.