Lady longhorns suffer first round loss at sub-districts

With the exception of the state champions, all teams end their seasons with a loss, some sooner than others. The Kimball High Lady Longhorn volleyball team saw their season come to a close Monday night in first round play of the C2-12 sub-district tournament being held in Ogallala, falling to Dundy County/Stratton in 3 sets by scores of 25-15 25-14 25-12. Bayard advanced to the finals after winning two matches Monday and will now battle Dundy County/Stratton for the title and advancement to a district playoff match.

It was not the finish to the season that coach Vicki Mitchell and her girls were hoping for as they ended the year with two consecutive losses, falling in the season regular match at Sidney to a very good Class B Team. “The loss to Sidney was to a very good team. If we had played against Dundy County like we did against Sidney, I feel we would have won easily. Dundy County does have some very tall girls and they have beaten some good teams, but we had some trouble in the middle stopping hits for what ever reason.

In the match with Sidney, the hosting Lady Raiders won out in 3 sets 25-14 25-17 25-1~. Senior Kelly Green led the hitting for Kimball with 9 kills and contributed 4 points. Madison Biesecker had 17 assists and 6 kills. Danika Daum had 4 points, 7 kills, and 9 assists. Arica McCloud led with 17 digs and 4 points, and Mikayla Fiehtner had 6 kills.

In the sub-district match, McCloud had 4 points and 8 digs. Daum 7 kills, 3 blocks, and 6 digs. Biesecker 13 assists and 7 digs. Green 6 kills. Kimball finished the season with a record of 12 wins and 13 losses, but the future appears to be bright. With just two seniors, coach Mitchell has lots of young players returning with lots of varsity experience. Coach Mitchell reflected on the season. “This season was kind of tough. We had a lot of growing pains in a rebuilding year. We lost six seniors last year and had only two seniors back this year. Kelly Green and Courtney Hunsaker can be proud of their efforts and their leadership. We used pretty much a 9 player rotation and 6 were sophomores or freshmen. The group returning has lots of athletic ability, and when they get this focused in a team direction, they are going to be unstoppable. I thought we could get this rebuilding accomplished this past summer, but we didn’t get there, and I take responsibility for that.”

From the view point of this writer, and officials who worked Kimball matches I have spoken with, the Kimball volleyball program has improved greatly and is headed in the right direction. The next two years should be fruitful. We will take a look at some final season stats in the next couple of weeks. Congrats Lady Longhorns on a good season that promises to get better.