Lady Wildcats runner-up in Wynot; split triangular at Walthill

WYNOT - The Hartington-Newcastle volleyball team split four games over the past week, winning in the opening round of the Wynot tournament on Sept. 5 over Bloomfield before falling to Crofton for the second time this season in the finals to take second place and splitting a triangular in Walthill with the Lady Blujays and Homer on Sept. 3.

In the Wynot tournament, Crofton defeated the Lady Wildcats 25-21 and 25-17.

It was the second go around with the Lady Warriors and HNS coach, Sarah Edwards, was pleased with the progress her team is making in the early going of this season.

“I felt like we were really ready to play,” Edwards said. “I was very proud of the effort and growth over the week between meetings. The determination of each member of our team was apparent throughout the match.

“From freshmen to seniors, the team is learning to trust each other and really understands their purpose on the floor. I am excited to see how the team grows over the next couple of weeks.”

McKenzie Bruning led a fairly balanced offensive effort with five kills in the match, Ella Eickhoff added three and Vayda Lippert and Karissa Bruning each had two.

Lippert and Alejandra Reyes each had an ace serve and Lippert and Hazel Hochstein had two and three set assists respectively.

Abi Rice had a solid match in the serve receiving department, successfully passing the ball 20 times and Maddie Steffen recorded 11 digs, McKenzie Bruning had seven and Hochstein had six.

Eickhoff had a couple of stuffs at the net defensively, Lippert and Karissa Bruning each had one block.

Against the Lady Bees, the Lady Wildcats dominated the match from the first point and came away with the sweep.

McKenzie Bruning hammered 10 winners in the match while Steffen chipped in with six kills.

Lippert tipped up a season-high 15 set assists to get the offense going, Hochstein added nine.

Earlier in the week, Hartington-Newcastle swept past Walthill in the first match of the triangular 25-17 and 25-22 then dropped a match with Homer in straight sets, 25-15 and 25-11.

In the first set with the Lady Knights in Walthill, HNS was trailing Homer 4-5 when McKenzie Bruning slammed a winner off of the Lady Knight block to even the set at 5-5.

Bruning then rifled an ace serve to give her team a 6-5 lead.

“We have four seniors on the team and we are concentrating on communicating with each other and with our younger players,” Bruning said. “We have a couple of freshmen and younger girls taking on big roles so I try to make them more comfortable and get them used to playing together. I try to do whatever it takes to make us all better, even if that is tough love at times.”

Homer responded with a kill to make it 6-6 and regained the lead with a block at the net.

A Lady Knight hitting error tied the game again at 7-7 before Homer had three consecutive winners to make it 10-7.

Steffen had a stuff at the net to get the Lady Wildcats back to within 10-8, but Homer rallied to go up 1712 later in the set.

Another McKenzie Bruning winner made it 17-13, a lady Knight hitting error made it 17-14 and a kill from Cohen Paden, where she took a little off her shot made it a twopoint set again.

Three straight Homer kills made it 20-15 and forced Edwards to call a timeout.

The Lady Knights didn’t blink from there and finished off the first set by the 25-15 final score by scoring the final eight points of the set.

The Lady Wildcats never led in the second set and lost the match with the 25-11 second-set final.

Hartington-Newcastle defeated Walthill in its first match of the triangular with the two-set sweep in the best-of-three-sets match.

The Lady Wildcats did most of their damage at the service line as they recorded a dozen ace serves in the match.

Freshman, Ella Eickhoff had four, Alejandra Reyes had three and Aralynn Collier recorded two.

Vayda Lippert tipped up six assists.

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

Crofton def. HNS 25-21, 25-17.

HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Abi Rice 1k, 20r; Hazel Hochstein 6d, 3s; Ella Eickhoff 3k, 2b, 1d; Maddie Steffen 11d, 6r; Vayda Lippert 2k, 1a, 1b, 3d, 2s,4r; Cohen Paden 1d, 3r; McKenzie Bruning 5k, 7d, 4r; Alejandra Reyes 1a, 2d, 2r; Karissa Bruning 2k,1b, 3d.

HNS def. Bloomfield 25-16, 25-14.

HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Rice 3d, 9r; Hochstein 9s; Eickhoff 3k, 11d; Steffen 6k, 10d, 5r; Lippert 3k, 4d, 15s, 3r; Paden 1k, 2d; M. Bruning 10k, 5d, 6r; Reyes 3d, 3r; K. Bruning 4k, 1d, 1s.

Homer def. HNS 25-15, 25-11.

HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Rice 6d, 9r; Hochstein 1d; Eickhoff 1b; Steffen 1a, 10r; Lippert 4d, 3s, 2r; Paden 1k, 1a, 2d, 1r; M. Bruning 3k, 1b, 7d, 11r; Reyes 1d, 3r; K. Bruning 1s.

HNS def. Walthill 25-17, 25-22.

HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Rice 1s, 4r; Justyce Sohl 1d, 3r; Lainey Morten 4d, 1s, 2r; Hochstein 2k, 1r; Eickhoff 1k, 4a, 1d; Steffen 2d; Lippert 1k, 1a, 5d, 6s, 1r; Myrisa Lammers 1k, 1d; Paden 1k, 1r; M. Bruning 3k, 1a, 2d, 4r; Reyes 3a, 2d, 2r; Katelyn Wubben 1k, 1a, 2r; K. Bruning 1r; Aralynn Collier 2a, 2d, 2s.