Triangulars keep Chase County volleyball busy

    The Chase County volleyball team has increased its record to 17-4 after four games last week.
    CCS kicked off the week Tuesday with a triangular at Grant.
    The Longhorns played Gothenburg (19-5) for Chase County’s first match after the Swedes swept Perkins County to start the night.
    CCS Head Coach April Lambert said she thinks the game order did make a difference in the Longhorns 14-25, 22-25 loss.
    “Gothenburg was obviously warmed up and hyped up after beating Perkins County pretty handily,” Lambert said, adding CCS needed to come out and match their energy but the Longhorns got off to a slow start with serve receive and offense.
    Unable to make any runs, CCS fell behind 6-10 after a trip through the rotation. The Longhorns stayed within five points before the Swedes closed the first set on a seven-point run.
    The Longhorns found their rhythm in the second set, taking a 7-1 lead. Gothenburg nibbled away at the advantage and tied the game at eight. After trailing 11-16, CCS worked themselves back into the set, closing the gap to 19-21 before the Swedes took the win.
    Bryn McNair had nine of Chase County’s 12 kills.
    The Longhorns had a negative hitting percentage, but had a nice night serving with a 94.6 percentage.
    CCS rebounded with a 25-15, 25-16 win over 11-8 Perkins County.
    The Longhorns flipped the script in the first set against the Plainsmen. It was Perkins County that was unable to string together runs while CCS steadily increased its lead.
    Chase County continued its dominance in the second set. Serving runs by Joee Clevenger and Jerzee Milner helped the Longhorns to the easy win.
    McNair finished with 15 kills. Gisselle Acuna added seven kills.
    Thursday the Longhorns hosted 5-17 Maxwell and 12-10 Sutherland.
    Chase County started off the night with a 25-14, 25-10 win over Maxwell.
    Runs of five and six points put the first set out of reach early.
    The second set was much of the same. Two-extended serving runs gave the Longhorns a comfortable lead before Clevenger finished off the Wildcats with eight-straight points.
    McNair finished with 13 kills.
    In the final game of the night, CCS beat Sutherland 25-15, 25-12.
    The Longhorns had just swept the Sailors Sept. 25 and were able to pick up where they left off.
    Chase County broke open a tie at seven with an 18-8 run to take set one.
    Milner put the Sailors to bed early in the second set, serving CCS on a four-point run. Tristan Nordhausen followed Milner’s lead, leading the Longhorns on a five-point run in the comfortable win.
    Once more, McNair had double-digit kills, 11, to lead CCS.
    Looking back on the week, Lambert said high level teams like Gothenburg serve much more aggressively and are much better offensively out of system.
    “Gothenburg kept attacking and their serve receive kept them in system a lot. The balls coming over the net are much harder to control and return, so we have to do a better job of preparing for that in practice and expecting it from higher level opponents,” she added.

Up next
    Southwest (14-6) and North Platte St. Pat’s (10-8) were in town Tuesday for a triangular.
    Thursday CCS will head back to Perkins County.
    CCS has beaten all three teams this season and Lambert said the Longhorns will stick with what works, but keep making adjustments to improve the little things.
    Next Tuesday the Longhorns will host 2-14 Kimball.
    SPVA will be held in Grant Oct. 16. Chase County is currently leading the conference point standings.
    To do well over the final weeks of the season, Lambert said her team needs to get better on serve receive against aggressive servers and Longhorn hitters also need to be ready to attack out of system, as well as working on some blocking/defense cleanup and continue to work on high percentage, aggressive serving.