SALINA — Early on Tuesday evening, the Great Bend High School Lady Panthers were enjoying themselves at the Salina South volleyball triangular.
In the end, they were enjoying themselves, again, salvaging a split in the pair of season-opening matches against Ark Valley-Chisolm Trail League opponents.
In a strong opening-game performance, a match which turned out to be of best-of-three nature with Maize, Great Bend seized an early lead and built on it during a 25-23 victory.
Yet momentum is something that can come and go in an instant. Or, for that matter, during the resumption of the match, as Maize rallied for a 25-15 win to even things up and then registered a 25-23 triumph to win the match.
“Maize and South both played in a tournament this past weekend and that showed against Maize,” GBHS head coach Kelsey Perry said of her team. “We mentally weren’t match-ready. The first match of the season is usually ugly because practice just isn’t the real thing.
“We came out strong to win the first set against Maize and then couldn’t get focused. Our defense was great. Serve receive and digs percentage were very high, but we hit in the negative percentile. We want to learn a lot from a loss, so the first match of the season is better then the last of the season to do that.”
In their second match, against host Salina South, the Lady Panthers grabbed some early momentum and never let go this time, building on an early lead and holding on for a 25-22 win in the opener. Thereafter, it was a runaway, as Great Bend blew the Lady Cougars out of their own house with a 25-15 rout to sweep the match.
“We did a lot of good things and we have a lot more to work on and improve at,” Perry said. “We shouldn’t play our best in September because we have to build up to a strong finish in October.”
Maize finished 2-0 in the triangular, also beating Salina South in a best-of-three match, 25-16, 21-25, 25-23.
GBHS returns to action on Thursday, heading to Garden City for the Western Athletic Conference opener. Liberal will join them.
PREP VOLLEYBALL
Non-Conference
Tuesday
At Salina
Salina South High School
Great Bend 2, Salina South 0
(25-22, 25-15)
Hannah Hildebrand — 5 kills, 1 block, 1 dig
Brenna Haines — 1 ace, 4 kills, 3 blocks, 7 digs
Tarynn Stueder — 2 kills, 2 aces, 7 digs
Kylee Spray — 11 digs
Kaylie Doll — 6 digs, 1 kill, 2 blocks
Kelsie Doll — 4 digs, 2 kills
Morgan Kottas — 1 kill, 1 dig
Regan Unruh — 4 kills
Dakota Sanders — 1 dig
Liz Barber — 3 digs
Selam Ball — 3 digs
Maize 2, Great Bend 1
(23-25, 25-15, 25-22)
No statistics
