Longhorns lose to Ogallala in subdistricts

    As the old adage says, it’s tough to beat a team three times. The Chase County volleyball team proved four times is even tougher Monday night.
    CCS had lost to Hershey Sept. 3, Oct. 15 and Oct. 18. The Longhorns got the win when they needed it most. Third seeded CCS beat second seeded Hershey in sub districts Monday night to keep its season alive.
    Playing top seeded Ogallala in Ogallala Tuesday was too high a hurdle for the Longhorns to jump, however.
    CCS came out ready to go against the Indians. Chase County held a 21-16 lead, but could not close out the set, losing 23-25. Ogallala carried the momentum into the second set. CCS never led in the second set, a 17-25 loss. The Longhorns trailed by four in the third set, 8-12, but came back to tie at 13-13. The set was tied at 19-19 when Ogallala went on a five-point run. CCS couldn’t erase the deficit and lost 20-25.
First round win over Hershey
    CCS trailed by one point in the first set but couldn’t stick with the Panthers down the stretch, losing 18-25. The second set was close throughout. With the set tied at 22-22, the Longhorns scored the final three points and took a 25-22 win. CCS only led once, 1-0, in the third set and dropped the set 17-25. Tied at 7-7 in the fourth set, Chase County went on a eight-point run, grabbing the momentum in the match. CCS forced a fifth set with a 25-16 win.
    The fifth set was never in doubt. The Longhorns took a 4-1 lead and quickly expanded it to 9-2 en route to a 15-6 win.
Regular season finale
    After being swept by Hershey Oct. 15 in the SPVA championship game at Grant, CCS hit the road for Hershey Oct. 18 for a rematch.
    “We had a game plan going in to close the gap we saw at SPVA. I thought our girls responded well to the defensive and offensive strategies we implemented,” Head Coach April Lambert said.
    The Longhorns stuck with Hershey through 17-17 in the first set. CCS wasn’t able to keep up with the Panthers and lost the set 20-25. The second set fell in Hershey’s favor, as well, 16-25, but Chase County flipped the script in the third set. CCS fought off match point, 23-24, and went on take on 25-24 lead. But Hershey came back and forced the Longhorns to hold off another match point. CCS scored the final three points of the set and took the 29-27 win. Chase County forced a fifth set with a 25-20 win in set four.
    Hershey had the first serve in the deciding set and CCS quickly found itself trailing 2-6. The Longhorns ended up losing the set 9-15. Next year’s CCS prospects
    Chase County loses five senior runners after this season.
    For the boys, Zuege expects seven from this year’s team back, six of whom made up Chase County’s district team.
    Added to that are 3-4 junior high runners, putting prospects at about a dozen runners in 2023, Zuege said.
    “A big thing for us is having that experience,” he said.
    Two seniors will leave the girls’ team, with three underclassmen remaining. There were no junior high girls on the team this year, so Zuege would like to get those numbers up.
    Track season may find some potential cross country runners, he said, and he and fellow coaches will “beat the bushes” looking for more girls’ team runners.
    For both teams, once they get an athlete out it’s rare  that one drops out later on, Zuege said.
    Seniors who will be missed next year include Colin O’Neil, Peyton Dubas and Kobe Norman from the boys’ team, along with McKenzie Vogt and Maddie Hanes from the girls’ team.