Ark Valley News - Volleyball team splits six games

Alex Sparks serves against Clearwater Sept. 9 in the Valley Center invitational.

Volleyball team splits six games
By Randy Fisher
Last Updated: September 14, 2017

By Randy Fisher

Even-steven. Nothing lost, nothing gained.

That describes the past week for Valley Center High School's volleyball team. The Hornets split a league triangular Sept. 12 and finished 2-2 in their own tournament Sept. 9. For the season, they are 6-10 overall and 1-4 in Ark Valley Chisholm Trail League II.

Senior Night seemed too early this year. It was held Sept. 12, not even three weeks into the season. But the fans were there in droves, especially students.

“It's really important to me that everybody came out to support us tonight," said senior Alex Sparks. “I'm really excited for the rest of the season and to see … what we're about to accomplish."

It was a mixed bag for the seniors, as Valley Center split. The Hornets eased by Ark City 25-15, 25-17 for its first league win but struggled in losing to Andover 25-13, 25-20.

Playing the Bulldogs first may have hurt Valley against the Trojans.

“When we played Ark City, we played down to their level because they're not very good," senior Emma Meyer said. “We carried that low level into the first game (against Andover). By the second game, we were on their level. It was a lot faster paced game."

Coach Holly Rutter agreed with Meyer.

“While we were very controlled and did really great things against Ark City, it was just too slow of a tempo," Rutter said. “There wasn't much excitement. I think that hurt us going into Andover."

In the first set, the Hornets led 11-9 when Carlie Claussen's ace got things rolling. Valley Center built a seven-point lead at 22-15. Its largest lead was the final score of 25-15.

Leading 6-4 in the second set, a kill from Ellie Shank started a 9-0 run.

From there, however, the Hornets had to hold on. Ark City chipped away and got to within 21-17. Hannah Johnston scored on a block, Shank served an ace, an Ark City error and a kill from Alora Klinkhammer gave Valley the 25-17 victory.

The Hornets started like gangbusters against Andover, scoring the first four points. After a Valley service error, the Trojans rallied for a 5-4 lead.

Shank's kill tied the game, but that was all she wrote. With Korynn Haetten doing most of the damage, Andover hit a 9-1 run and never looked back, winning 25-13.

“That's the problem right now," Rutter said. “We play with people and all of a sudden we let them spring points on us, and we lose confidence and give them confidence."

The second set was tied seven times. Valley's biggest advantage was 13-10. That's when Andover hit another 6-0 run to go up 16-13.

But Valley came back. Johnston hit off the quick set, Reagan Fischer scored on a stuff block and two Trojan errors put the Hornets back on top, 17-16.

Unfortunately, they couldn't maintain that advantage. Andover ripped off five straight points and eased to the 25-20 win.

Shank was hot all night. She had seven kills and hit. 312 against Andover. Against Ark City, she had 10 kills and a .400 attack.

Claussen had nine assists in each match.

Valley Center hosted its annual tournament Sept. 9 and split four games. In their first two matches, the Hornets were pushed but never lost control.

Against Clearwater, the Hornets took a 5-1 lead in the first set. The Indians stayed in the game until late but never led. Valley's biggest lead was at the end, 25-15.

Valley jumped on top 6-1 in the second set and extended its lead to 19-10. The Indians pulled to within one, 24-23, before Valley closed out the match with a 25-23 win.

Campus took a 5-1 lead in the first game, but Valley knotted things at 10. The Hornets went on to win 25-18.

The second set was all Valley. The Hornets grabbed the early 7-2 lead and expanded it to 12-4. They coasted to a 25-14 victory.

“I think we played pretty cohesive ball," Fischer said of Valley's matches against Clearwater and Campus.

“We've been starting well but finishing poorly," Rutter said. “It was nice to finish well and get the wins.

Garden City and Valley Center were tied at 8 in the first set. That's when the Hornets pulled away to a 15-8 lead, sparked by back-to-back aces from Fischer.

The Buffaloes crept to with two, 17-15, but another run kept Valley in control 21-15. The teams exchanged points the rest of the way, as Valley won 25-19.

Garden City threatened to run away with the second set, dissecting Valley's defense in building a 14-4 lead. Then Valley Center staged a most improbable rally to get back into the game.

The Hornets started off with small chunks, twice outscoring the Buffaloes 3-1, the second time made it 16-11.

The Hornets crept to within a point, 16-15. Trailing 17-15, Johnston pounded down a couple of balls off the quick set to tie the score.

As often happens, a team overcomes a large deficit but often runs out of gas at the end. That seems to be what happened with Valley Center, as the Buffaloes pulled out to a 24-19 lead. The Hornets made one final push to get to within one, 24-23, before Garden City closed out the set, 25-23.

In the third set, The Buffaloes jumped on top 5-0 and never looked back, winning 25-20.

Historically, Valley Center and Bishop Carroll have squared off in some highly energized matches in this tournament. But this wasn't one of them.

“We lacked excitement," Fischer said. “Usually we're the team that has the excitement."

After falling behind 10-4, Valley tied it at 19 and scored six straight to win 25-19. Shank had a pair of aces, and Kait McDonald had one. A couple of Carroll errors and a kill by Johnston powered the Hornets down the stretch.

In the second set, neither team led by more than four points until Carroll went up 16-11. The Eagles gradually extended their lead and won 25-15.

Carroll built a 7-2 lead in the third set and never trailed. Its advantage peaked at 17-5 en route to a 25-16 win.

“I think we played well in the first games of these two hard teams," Fischer said of Garden City and Bishop Carroll. “It's just finishing. I think we're getting into too big of a hole at the beginning."

For the tournament, Shank had 22 kills, hit .250 and passed for 2.48. Fischer had 19 kills, Johnston 18 and Klinkhammer 14. Shank had 38 assists and Claussen 35. Klinkhammer, Emily Kemp and Fischer each passed over 2.00. Johnston also had 10 blocks, while Klinkhammer and Kristin Coon had six each.

JV second at tourney — Valley's junior varsity finished second Sept. 9 at Conway Springs and split its Sept. 12 triangular, improving to 7-4.

In the home triangular, Valley Center beat Ark City 25-17, 25-20 but lost to Andover 25-14, 25-18. The Hornets hit poorly in each match; -0.61 against Andover and 0.037 against Ark City.

At Conway Springs, the Hornets beat Douglass 25-8, 25-11; Haven 22-25, 25-14, 15-13; Conway Springs 25-21, 25-9 and Garden Plain 25-20, 25-17, but lost in the finals to Cheney 25-22, 25-22.

“Erin Thorne stepped up and played a position that she wasn't used to since we had a player have to leave after pool play," coach Kaitlin Woelhoff said. “Cheney was a tough team and we look forward to facing them later on in the year."

Kylee Dawson had 22 kills and Chaeli Keenan 20. Tanza Holmes had 60 assists.