Lady Wildcats drop three at Creighton tournament

HARTINGTON - Hartington-Newcastle had a rough showing at the Creighton Invitational volleyball tournament this past week as the Lady Wildcats dropped three consecutive matches to West Holt, Creighton and Summerland to fall to 6-7 on the season after climbing to 6-4 last week.

In the opening round of the tournament, West Holt downed the Lady Wildcats in straight sets and in the last round, Summerland defeated Hartington-Newcastle 2-1.

In between those two rounds, the Lady Wildcats dropped a match to the hosts 2-0 or 25-14 and 25-20.

McKenzie Bruning made the way for the Hartington-Newcastle attack with six kills in the match. Vayda Lippert tipped up five set assists, Hazel Hochstein contributed three.

Maddie Steffen added five winners and contributed 21 good passes off of the Lady Bulldog serve and led the team with 11 digs.

Abi Rice had 10 digs defensively, Lippert tacked on seven.

Hartington-Newcastle was set to be back in action in a home match with the Lady Bobcats again on Sept. 17 before a match with Class A South Sioux City on Sept. 19 on the road.

k=Kills, a=Ace Serves, b=Blocks, d=Digs, s= Set Assists, r= Successful passes.

Creighton def. Hartington-Newcastle 25-14, 25-20.

HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE 6-7): Abi Rice 10d, 7r; Hazel Hochstein 1d, 3s; Ella Eickhoff 1d; Maddie Steffen 5k, 11d, 21r; Vayda Lippert 2k, 2a, 7d, 5s, 4r; Cohen