Lady Wildcats are looking for more

HARTINGTON — The Hartington- Newcastle Lady Wildcats volleyball team is hungry for more after posting a rather disappointing 9-21 season in 2022, but showed progress throughout the campaign, which bodes well for the future.

“The girls made great progress all season,” second-year head coach Sarah Edwards said. “Many of our matches went down to the final two points.”

Edwards will be assisted by Kelsey Fincher, Kenneth Schroeder and Billie Wortmann.

Hartington-Newcastle returns a couple of Lewis and Clark Conference honorable-mention selections, eight seniors and five starters from last season.

Lauren Howell and Olivia Grutsch were named to the Lewis and Clark list as an outside hitter and setter, respectively.

Abi Rice returns at the libero position and Mani Lange comes back for her senior season as an outside hitter.

Zoey Gratzfeld and McKenzie Bruning return in the middle.

“Our team has shown a lot of growth over the summer and we hope to build on the great matches we played at the end of last season,” Edwards said. “These girls are determined to hit the ground running.”

Edwards will be looking to another five players to fill in the blanks and contribute this fall.

Maddie Steffen, Kendra Anderson, Emma Wubben, Faith Pinkelman and Alejandra Reyes should find the court in 2023 in various positions and roles on the team.

The Lady Wildcats open Aug. 24 at Crofton and are set to play in a quadrangular and a tournament to end out the month. They will play in the Winside quad on Aug. 26 and the Wynot tournament on Aug. 31.

Sept. 5 will find HNS at Winnebago before the Creighton Invitational on Sept. 9.

Conference dates at Wynot, at home against Bloomfield and on the road at Homer fill up most of the month of September before the Lady Wildcats host a triangular with Wausa and Wakefield on Sept. 26, then head to Plainview for another conference match, this one with the Lady Pirates on Sept. 28.

A match at home against Randolph and a road trip to Laurel to take on Laurel-Concord-Coleridge lead up to the Hartington-Newcastle Invitational on Oct. 7.

A pair of triangulars, one at Tri County Northeast on Oct. 10 and one in Walthill on Oct. 12, will lead into the Lewis and Clark Conference Tournament Oct. 14 through Oct. 16.

Sub-Districts are set for Oct. 23 and 24 with Hartington-Newcastle heading to the Class C2-6 Sub-District along with Cedar Catholic, Crofton, LCC and Ponca.

“It will be an exciting season,” Edwards said.