Chase County wins SPVA volleyball championship

    For the sixth straight year the Chase County volleyball team reached the finals of the SPVA tournament and for the fourth time, the Longhorns brought home the title.
    Coming in as the top seed, CCS beat North Platte St. Pat’s in three sets in the semifinals and swept Hershey in the finals.
    NPSP, the fourth seed, beat Perkins County 23-25, 25-19, 30-28 to advance in the tourney.
    CCS jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but the Irish closed that gap to 10-9. From there, NPSP was never able to score twice in a row and CCS took the easy 25-13 win.
    The tables turned in the second set when the Longhorns fell behind 2-8.
    CCS Head Coach April Lambert said St. Pat’s first server put Chase County on its heels and got its offense out of system, forcing more hitting errors than she would have liked.
    CCS tied the set at 18, but never took the lead in the 22-25 loss.
    The Longhorns got their groove back in the third set. Libero Chloe Dillan opened up an 18-9 over St. Pat’s with a six-point run. NPSP narrowed its deficit slightly, but it was the Longhorns that moved on to the championship match with a 25-18 win.
    Bryn McNair had 20 kills.
    Nordhausen had four of the Longhorns’ seven aces.
    Hershey moved into the championship match with sweeps of Kimball and Bridgeport.
    The first set was a good one. Though the teams had several ties in the middle of the match, CCS took control with Jerzee Milner serving. The Longhorns erased a tie at 14 and grabbed a four-point lead. The Panthers answered, tying the game at 21 then 22 points before CCS took a 25-22 win.
    The Longhorns sent a message in the second set and were never challenged in the 25-13 win.
    McNair had 12 kills to lead CCS.
    Lambert said she thought blocking was one of Chase County’s strong suits in the tournament.
    “I thought our pin blockers did a great job setting the block in the right place and timing the jump like we have been working on and then our middles did a great job closing, being explosive, penetrating the net and turning that block inside the court,” Lambert said.
Longhorns sweep Kimball
    CCS hosted Kimball Oct. 12. The Longhorns won in a romp, 25-11, 25-13, 25-9.
    With 14 players seeing action in the varsity contest, Lambert said it was fun for Longhorn starters to celebrate the younger players on the court and for them to get their time to shine.
    McNair had 17 kills in the match. CCS hit .347 as a team.
    The Longhorns also racked up 18 aces, including five from Milner and four by Liz Reeves.
Up next
    CCS has not seen the last of Hershey.
    The Panthers were in Imperial for a rematch with Chase County Tuesday.
    The possibility looms that the teams may see each other for the third time in less than two weeks when subdistrict volleyball begins Monday.
    Hershey had its eyes on the top seed in the subdistrict, but knew it would need to beat CCS every chance it had.
    Lambert said there are a lot of advantages to being the number one seed.
    “Hosting, playing on your home court, being in your own locker room and having a big home crowd behind you all inspire a lot of confidence. I think this team plays really well at home,” she said.
    Looking at the teams in the subdistrict, a home court advantage won’t hurt.
    CCS is eighth in the point standings and in line to host. Mitchell is 12th, Hershey is 13th and Ogallala is 15th in the point standings. Depending how subdistricts play out across the state, its possible all four teams could reach district finals. Chadron, 22nd in the point standings, rounds out the subdistrict but is on an 11-game win streak.
    “Our subdistrict is definitely not one to be underestimated or overlooked at all,” Lambert said, adding she believes it’s one of the top three subdistricts out of Class C1’s 12 subdistricts.
    So bringing all those teams to Imperial and the Longhorns’ home court is important.
    “The geography of our subdistrict is also about 175 miles north to south and 200 miles east to west, so forcing all of those teams to be on the road for two to three hours and come to us is a big advantage,” Lambert added.
    The first seed will have a bye Monday, then play the winner of the subdistrict’s first match between the fourth and fifth seeds. The second and third seeds will play the evening’s second match.
    “Being able to come out fresh against a team that may have just played four or five sets and then had to sit and wait to go again is another advantage,” Lambert said.
    To give teams more to worry about, CCS worked the slide into their offense during the SPVA tournament to try and spread defenses out and add a wrinkle.
    “It will be to our advantage to keep middle blockers guessing and prevent them from setting up in front of our big hitters on one side, especially as we face taller teams down the road,” Lambert said.
    She added that CCS will work to prepare well this week both physically and mentally to play its best volleyball on Tuesday and for subdistricts.

Class C1 point standings (10/18/21)
1. Lincoln Lutheran (31-1), 46.1250
2. Columbus Lakeview (25-3), 45.9643
3. GICC (25-1), 45.9231
4. Kearney Catholic (27-4), 45.9032
5. Broken Bow (22-4), 45.5000
6. Syracuse (23-1), 45.3750
7. Gothenburg (23-5), 45.1786
8. Chase County (23-4), 45.0370
9. St. Paul (25-4), 44.9310
10. Bishop Neumann (22-6), 44.7857
11. Malcolm (23-6), 44.3103
12. Mitchell (23-4), 44.0000
13. Hershey (17-6), 44.0000
15. Ogallala (21-9), 43.7000
22. Chadron (18-12), 42.5667