Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
The senior volleyball players are pictured here near the end of an exciting season. The Lady Longhorns took runner-up at the SPVA tournament last week. Pictured, from left, are Ireland Olson, Ali Hunsaker, Madie Snyder, Myriah Tyan, Danika Daum, Mikayla Fiehtner, Guro Litlere, Madison Biesecker and, seated, Kayla Schoenemann.
Another good week of volleyball for the Kimball High Lady Longhorns despite the disappointment of losing to Bridgeport in the championship match of the Western Trails Conference Tournament.
The week started on Tuesday evening with a home match with Perkins County, designated as Parents' Night for the 7 senior members of the Kimball team and the Lady Horns responded with a convincing 3-0 win over the Lady Plainsmen by scores of 25-13 25-9 26-24. In the final set, with coach Ferguson using subs off the bench and Perkins County getting fired up, it took a final surge at the end to secure the win. The Kimball JV team started the night with a two set win with scores of 25-18 25-22 with Hannah Biesecker high with 10 service points and Hanna Klosterman with 9.
Awesome night for Madison Biesecker who led in scoring with 20 points including 4 ace serves, 8 kills, 20 set assists, and 3 blocks. Danika Daum had 13 kills, 3 blocks, and 15 set assists. Ali Hunsaker had 8 service points, and Madie Snyder 6 kills.
Commenting on the win, Coach Ferguson said, "Coach (Erin) Monheiser and I both knew that this would be an emotional night with it being the last home match for a group of seniors who have been playing varsity almost their entire high school careers. Add to that an opponent that is having a down year and sometimes that can cause a team some problems but our girls went out and took care of business. Coach Monheiser and I were very proud of both of our teams tonight."
This past Saturday Kimball moved into WTC Tournament play at Morrill seeded number one for a first round bye. After Mitchell defeated Morrill in straight sets, they met up with Kimball in the semi finals. The Horns had a slow start dropping the first set 23-25 but got rolling and won 25-18 25-12 to advance to the title match with Bridgeport. In the Mitchell win Biesecker had 12 points, 12 kills and 16 set assists. Daum had 22 kills, 19 assists and 5 blocks. Snyder had 10 points, and Myriah Tyan 4 blocks.
"For a team that has not had a tradition of receiving a first round bye, I was a little concerned how we would play that first game. Sometimes the team that has already played is more warmed up and in game mode, so it did not surprise me that we started a little slow but they didn't panic and took care of business to get us into the championship match!" said coach Ferguson.
In the fourth meeting of the year with Bridgeport Kimball took the first set 25-18 but then lost 23-25, 23-25 in once again a battle royal to even the series at two wins each for the year between these two clubs.
Coach Ferguson said, "The first set against Bridgeport was the best set of volleyball I have seen in a very long time. We were like a well oiled machine and was extremely fun to witness. Bridgeport is a very good team and they came back strong. We continued to play well but just made a few too many unforced errors preventing us from winning the conference title. The great thing is that these young ladies continue to improve and coach Monheiser and myself feel very strongly that we have not reached our peak yet. We are very proud of all the girls. The reason we are still improving is our practices are so competitive and the girls push each other which is so awesome."
In the title match Biesecker had 11 service points, 7 kills, and 24 set assists. Daum had 23 kills, 4 blocks, and 8 assists. Hunsaker had 14 service points, Mikayla Fiehtner 4 kills.
Kimball was to close out the regular season with matches at Sidney this past Tuesday before moving into sub-district tournament play at Alliance this coming Monday. At the time of this writing, the pairings and match times had not been set in stone but coach Ferguson was quite sure that Kimball would be playing Gordon-Rushville and Chadron and Mitchell would meet in the other first round match with the winners to then face each other. The sub-district winner will then face the winner of another sub-district in the district playoff, also with site and date to be determined between those two schools.
Kimball also sent a frosh-sophomore team to a tournament in Morrill this past Monday evening where they finished 3rd. In the first match with Mitchell, Kimball lost 22-25, 25-23 and 12-15 with Madison Wynne serving 10 points, Justine Heeg and Jazlyn Harroun 7 each. Kimball came back to win over Morrill 25-17, 25-11 with Heeg high with 9 points and Hailey Paxton with 6. Coach Ferguson said, "Everyone else brought their entire junior varsity squads while we brought only freshman and sophomores."