CCS volleyball heading to district final; bracket to be out mid-week

    After a one-year hiatus, the Chase County volleyball team is headed back to the Class C1 district final on Saturday.
    Seeding for Saturday’s matches were expected to be released Wednesday. Check nsaahome.org for the bracket.
    The Longhorns made subdistricts interesting, going five sets against both Ogallala Monday and Mitchell Tuesday.
    Heading into Tuesday’s subdistrict final against second-seeded Mitchell, Coach April Lambert said the Tigers are a good team who CCS got a look at during summer camps.
    She said CCS would have to play Longhorn volleyball, control things on its side of the net, while keeping Mitchell out of system and on their heels by always attacking.
    The game kept everyone on the edge of their seats. CCS won the match 23-25, 25-17, 25-18, 20-25, 15-9. A recap of the match will be included in next week’s Republican.
    “Our crowd is fun to play in front of, and they really help us win the momentum in matches in big moments, I think,” Lambert added.
Beat Ogallala in subs
    The C1-12 subdistrict opened in Imperial with fourth seeded Ogallala beating fifth seeded Chadron  24-26, 23-25, 25-15, 25-18, 15-8.
    After the two seed Mitchell beat third seed Hershey 25-14, 25-18, 25-20, Chase County took to the court to face Ogallala.
    The Indians had the hot hand early, jumping out to a three-point lead. CCS tied the game on a Liz Reeves’ ace then took the lead with back-to-back blocks. Chase County’s lead varied from four points down to one point. Back-to-back Joee Clevenger kills increased the lead to 21-17. Clevenger finished off the set with an ace, giving CCS a 25-19 win.
    Errors by Ogallala helped CCS to an early three-point lead in set two. The Indians battled back to take the lead, 11-13, before two kills by Bryn McNair tied the game. The teams traded the lead five times before CCS took a 19-18 lead. Four Ogallala attack errors put the set out of reach for the Indians. A block by Lucy Spady ended the set, 25-20.
    The momentum totally swung to Ogallala’s favor in the third set. CCS never led and dropped the game 18-25.
    The trend continued in the fourth set. The Longhorns’ only lead came at 5-4. A Clevenger ace pulled CCS to within one point, 13-14, but Ogallala had six kills to two for CCS down the stretch. An Ogallala ace sent the match to a fifth set, 16-25.
     Lambert said talk in the huddle focused on staying positive.
    “We just talked about keeping our faces positive and everything else would work out from there,” Lambert said.
    CCS started off the fifth set with a 3-0 run to force an Ogallala time out. The Indians responded with their own three point run which led to Lambert taking a timeout. The Longhorns trailed 4-7 before coming alive. A Jerzee Milner dump for a kill, followed by Milner and spady teaming up for a block jump started CCS. B. McNair earned a block of her own to tie the match a seven. After a lift was called on Ogallala, B. McNair tooled the Indians’ block. Two more B. McNair kills boosted CCS to an 11-9 lead as Ogallala’s attack fell apart. Two hitting errors widened the margin to 13-9. Kills by Spady and Landree McNair gave the Longhorns the match, 15-11.
    B. McNair had 25 kills in the match. Acuna also finished in double figures with 10 kills.
    Spady accounted for eight blocks.
    Lambert said she felt like Chase County’s block struggled with the speed of Ogallala’s offense and gave credit to Indian attackers.
    Statistically it was the Longhorns’ best blocking match of the year, finishing with 11 total blocks. CCS had 10 blocks against Ogallala in the season opener and 10 against Sidney Sept. 21.
    “I think we can do better blocking wise,” Lambert said.
Sweep Hershey at home
    Three days after their 2-0 sweep of Hershey in the conference finals, the Longhorns took a 3-0 victory over the Panthers to end the regular season.
    Playing on their home court, CCS opened the evening with a dominant 25-13 win. The Longhorns never trailed in the set. Hershey was within three points, 10-7, until CCS went on a 15-6 run to end the set.
    Despite Hershey only holding serve once in the second set, the game was much closer. CCS used four extended serving runs to take the 25-18 win.
    The final set was similar to the second. CCS forced quick side outs, never letting Hershey score more than two points in a row, and continued to hammer away at the Panthers. The Longhorns took the match with a 25-18 win.
    B. McNair had a team-high 20 kills. Acuna added 13 kills.