Lady Jays Volleyball
Varsity VB Wins Two at Dakota Valley
by Kenzie Moeller
The varsity volleyball team played the Dakota Valley Panthers and the Ponca Indians Thursday, September 27 at Dakota Valley. The Lady Jays won both games.
In the Dakota Valley game the Lady Jays started out strong 25-23. But in the second set, Pierce lost the momentum and the set 16-25. The Lady Jays kept fighting and won the third set 25-22. Again in the fourth set, the Lady Jays overcame the Panthers 25-23.
Senior Maggie Brahmer led the team in attacking with eighteen kills, followed by senior Rhayna Waldner with six kills. Sophomore Kenzie Moeller had a 100% serving average. Brahmer led the team with six serving aces, and close behind was Katrina Meier with five. Again, Brahmer led the Lady Jays with blocking with a total of six. Close behind was Meier and freshman Kennedy Warneke with four blocks each. Moeller led the team in digging with twenty-five digs and Brahmer had nine. Senior Kayla Simmons led the team with twenty-four assists.
Later that night, the Lady Jays took on the Ponca Indians. The Lady Jays started out strong 25-18. But in the second set, the Lady Jays lost 15-25. The Lady Jays knew they weren’t out of the game and won the last set 25-23.
Brahmer lead the team with a whopping twenty-three kills. Behind Brahmer was Waldner with six kills. Meier and Moeller served a 100% average. Brahmer had four serving aces and close behind was Moeller with two. Moeller led the team with eleven digs, and sophomore Faith Lubischer had five. Simmons led the team with thirty assists.
Coach Brittany Weber said,“We played very well. I’m very pleased with our effort and mental approach to last night. Both Ponca and Dakota Valley are very good teams. We are doing a great job of communicating and understanding personnel. I was most impressed with our serve and serve receive during both matches. It’s a serving and passing game, and our aggressive serves took them out of system and limited what they were able to do offensively. We had good attacking numbers which stemmed from great serve receive passes. Next week is another big week for us, so we need to focus on maintaining our high level of play from this week.”
The varsity volleyball team will take action at O’Neill High School Thursday, October 4.
Lady Jays Claim Win Against Bears
by Kailey Marks
The varsity volleyball girls played the Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Bears on Tuesday, September 25 at home. The Lady Jays achieved the win in five sets.
The first set ended with the varsity falling short 22-25. In the second set, the Lady Jays fought for the 25-19 win. Again in the third set, the varsity got the win, 25-22. The fourth set was a hard-fought set for the Lady Jays, but LCC took the set 24-26. For the final set, the girls captured the win 15-9.
Senior Maggie Brahmer had thirty kills against the Bears, followed by twelve by senior Rhayna Waldner and three each by senior Katrina Meier and sophomore Faith Lubischer. Meier and Lubischer also had two ace serves for the night, followed by sophomore Kenzie Moeller, Brahmer, senior Kayla Simmons, and junior Tazlynn Sporleder with one ace each. Brahmer led the team with three blocks, followed by freshman Kennedy Warneke, Meier and Lubischer with one apiece. Moeller led the team with 22 digs, followed by Brahmer with ten, Simmons and Waldner with eight, senior Marie Stone with seven, Meier with four, Lubischer with three and Warneke with one.
Varsity coach Brittany Weber says the team has things to work on before upcoming games but also shared, “I’m proud of the way we approached set five with a winning attitude.”
The varsity volleyball girls’ next game is Thursday, October 4 in O’Neill.
JV Volleyball Competes in Triangular
by Montana Ruppert
The JV volleyball team traveled to Dakota Valley High School Thursday, September 27, for a triangular. They lost to Dakota Valley in two sets and defeated Ponca in two sets.
In the first set against Dakota Valley, the Lady Jays struggled to score points. Early in the game, the Lady Jays were down 0-10. After a timeout they picked their heads up and scored a few points, bringing the score to 15-10. After losing the ball, the Lady Jays let the Panthers go on a serving run to 21-10. The Lady Jays got the ball back and brought the score closer, 20-21. But the Panthers finished with four points to end the first set 20-25.
In the second set against Dakota Valley, the Lady Jays lost 20-25. They kept up for most of the set, but let the Panthers go on some serving runs, and Pierce trailed by five points throughout the set.
In the second game, the Lady Jays played Ponca and won the first set 25-18 and the second set 25-17. In both sets, the Lady Jays built a gradual lead for the wins.
Coach Krista Meyer said, “We started off pretty rough that first set. I think that we did some really good things throughout the night but we also made some mistakes that we shouldn’t be making this late in the season. Our passing and our attack game were really strong on Tuesday, and I knew that would give us a boost going into these games. We were able to execute some great attacks, but we have to start with a good pass, so that was awesome to see the players step up and make that happen. I think communication errors are hurting us more than they should be. That's an easy fix, but we have to make an effort to fix that before our next match.”
The next JV volleyball game will be Tuesday, October 9, at home against GACC.
Freshmen Take Gold in Tournament
by McKenna Shonka
The Lady Jay freshman volleyball team played on their home court in Pierce on Saturday, September 29 in a tournament that the Pierce girls won with a 3-0 record.
In the first game the Lady Jays played against the Ponca Indians and won in two sets, 25-22 and 25-19.
Their second game was against the Crofton Warriors, where the freshmen played a total of three sets. The Jays won the first set 25-20, but for the second set the Lady Jays were a little short for a final of 22-25. The final set against Warriors the freshman Lady Jays won 15-13.
Last game of the day for the Lady Jays was against the Hartington Trojans, a hard-fought game that the Lady Jays won in two sets, 25-22 and 25-23.
Coach Krista Meyer commented, "Saturday was some of the best volleyball I've seen these girls play all year! They really played with heart, and it was great to see." Exciting moments Coach Meyer mentioned: "We made some crazy defensive moves, and they really got us hyped up, as well as getting lots of kills and tip kills. It just really changed the momentum of the game and gave us really good boosts."
Next game for the freshman team is Thursday, October 18, which it is also parents’ night.
Freshman Volleyball Beats Bears
by Kenzie Moeller
The freshman volleyball team played the Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Bears Tuesday, September 25, and won in two sets.
In the first set, Brynlee Marks served for a seven-point and a three-point run to help her team to the 25-22 victory for the Lady Jays. Larissa Meier, Morgan Blecher, and Graison Pfeiffer’s three point serving runs helped the Lady Jays overcome the Bears for a 25-22 win in the second set.
Coach Krista Meyer said, “We started off the game pretty rough but were able to fight our way back. I was really pleased with how we were able to put girls in different positions, and they executed when they needed to!"
The freshmen will next see action at O’Neill High School on Thursday, October 4, starting at 5:30 p.m.
JH Volleyball Defeats Madison
by Tazlynn Sporleder
The Pierce junior high volleyball girls traveled to Madison on Thursday, September 27.
The seventh grade team won in three sets over Madison. In set one Pierce played hard but lost, 19-25. To start off the game Madelyn Hanson went on a three-point serving run with two aces to give Pierce the quick lead.
In the second set Pierce fought back and won 25-15. Amber Shefl went on a 10-point serving run with two aces.
In the third set Pierce won a close set 17-15. Madelyn Hanson went on a 10-point serving run with five aces to give Pierce an early lead.
Seventh grade coach Katie Brummels said, “The game went really well, and it was nice to see the skills we have been practicing come together. It is also nice to get the first win of the season. Our strength was serving well, a big factor in the win. Something that we need to improve on is communication.”
The eighth grade A team won over the Dragons in two sets. The first set Pierce won with a breeze, 25-9. Early in the game Ella Gaes went on a 14-point serving run with five aces. Morgan Moeller also went on a five-point serving run with three aces.
In the second set the Dragons tried to fight back, but the Bluejays put up a fight and won 25-7. Brielle Unseld started with serve and went on a five-point run, so Pierce built a quick 5-0 lead. Ciara Garcia went on an eight-point run serving six aces to add to the Bluejays’ lead. M.Moeller ended the game serving for an eight-point run with three aces.
The eighth grade B team also won over Madison in two sets. The first set Madison put up a fight but the Bluejays pulled off the win, 25-21. Early in the set Morgan Schnoor went on a five-point run with two aces to give the Jays the lead. Later on in the set E. Gaes went on a four-point serving run.
In the second set of the B game Madison was no competition for Pierce. The score of the second set was 25-14. To end the game strong, Zaylah Pfanstiel went on a seven-point serving run.
Coach of the eighth grade team Angie Schroeder said, “The team improves each match. The 8 A team is 4-1 and the 8 B team is 3-2.”
