Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

Kimball Gives Hemingford A Fight

Kimball's Lady Longhorn volleyball team started the 2020 with a trip to Hemingford for a non-league matchup against the Gordon-Rushville Lady Mustangs Thursday night and conference matchup against the Hemingford Lady Bobcats.

The Kimball squad was unable to offer much resistance against a Lady Mustang team coming off a 22-and-10 2019 campaign in a very tough C1 league.

Gordon-Rushville middle hitter Jayla Brehmer found all the empty spaces in the Lady Longhorns' defense, while power hitter Bree Lovell delivered multiple ace serves and kept the Lady Longhorns off-balance. The Lady Mustangs' offense stalled for a bit, allowing the Lady Longhorn to narrow the score, but easily took the first set 25-to-11.

The second set opened with both teams exchanging points in the early going, but the Lady Mustangs again proved to be too strong for the Kimball squad, and finished off the set 25-to-13 for the 2-to-0 straight set victory.

Facing off against a more evenly matched opponent in Hemingford, the Lady Longhorns still opened slowly, but roared back to tie the first set at 15. Kimball was down 21-to-19 nearing the end of the second set, but was able to put together a string of scores and took the second set by a score of 25-to-20.

In the third set, the Lady Longhorns played from behind, but kept pace with excellent net play by junior Tianna Stierwalt and senior Megan Spicer.

Kimball was able to overtake the Lady Bobcats, and entered the last part of the set up 20-to-19. But the Lady Bobcats were able to find the holes in the Kimball defense again, and after a few well placed shots, regained the lead and took the set victory 25-to-22 for the 2-to-1 match victory.

Kimball was scheduled to host the Leyton Lady Warriors on Tuesday, Sept. 1.