GARDEN CITY — The difference between spliting a volleyball triangular and sweeping one is making more runs.
After splitting with Maize and Salina South in Salina on Tuesday evening, the Lady Panthers came away with a sweep of Western Athletic Conference foes Garden City and Liberal on Thursday.
The Lady Panthers, 3-1, swept Garden City, 25-21 and 25-22, and Liberal, 25-21 and 25-14.
“We played well in spurts against Garden,” Great Bend head coach Kelsey Perry said. “We put a lot more runs together than we did Tuesday night, so that was a big game-changer.
“The girls really focused in on their defense and it paid off. We dug the ball very well and our hitters spread out the kills, so that makes them harder to stop. Garden was the WAC champs last year, so we wanted to see what we could accomplish against them right away and our ladies responded well.”
It got even better for GBHS against the Lady Redskins.
“We really started to play at our potential against Liberal,” Perry said. “They have an extremely good hitter and our front row really stepped up and stopped her.
“Everyone on our team has so much to bring to our team and that makes us all-around very talented. Liberal knocked us off at sub-state last season, so our girls had that memory in the back of their heads and wanted to prove something.”

                                                                                                                                           — Mack McClure

HIGH SCHOOL VOLLEYBALL
Western Athletic Conference

Thursday
At Garden City

Great Bend 2, Garden City 0
(25-21, 25-22)
GBHS statistics
Tarynn Stueder — 5 kills, 15 assists, 10 digs, 1 ace
Selam Ball — 5 digs
Liz Barber — 1 dig
Brenna Haines — 3 digs, 7 kills, 2 blocks
Hannah Hildebrand — 2 kills, 2 blocks, 5 digs
Kaylie Doll — 3 assists, 1 kill, 1 block, 3 aces, 15 digs
Kelsie Doll — 7 digs, 3 kills, 1 block
Morgan Kottas — 2 kills
Dakota Sanders — 1 dig
Kylee Spray — 11 digs
Regan Unruh — 4 kills, 1 dig

Great Bend 2, Liberal 0
( 25-21, 25-14)
Brenna Haines — 5 kills, 4 blocks, 1ace, 6 digs
Hannah Hildebrand — 1 kill, 1 dig
Kaylie Doll — 2 aces, 7 digs, 2 kills, 2 blocks
Kelsie Doll — 4 kills, 1 block, 10 digs
Morgan Kottas — 3 kills, 2 digs
Dakota Sanders — 2 digs, 1 ace
Tarynn Stueder — 1 ace, 10 digs, 14 assists