Bulldog Volleyball had another big week of volleyball matches, traveling to Mott on Thursday, Oct. 6, to Beach on Saturday, Oct. 8 for the Beach Invitational, and then playing Beach at home on Tuesday, Oct. 11.
By JENNIFER HOLCEK
The Bulldogs once again started out hot against the Wildfire in Mott, winning the first set 25-19.
In a second set slump, the Bulldogs failed to get their offense going and lost that set 14-25. That lack of momentum carried into the third set, which the girls lost 15-25. They played a much better set in set 4 and lost by 21-25. A negative hitting percentage as a team hurt Bowman County in this match. Highlights included 6 services aces and a 93 percent of all serves inbounds as a team and some very decent defense with 50 digs and 20 blocks. Leading the dig numbers with 23 was Cassidy Walby. Ellie Stafford put up 7 blocks, Leslie Roen had 5.
The girls have been working hard on trying to overcome momentum swings in games and trying to really focus on keeping a lead and not ever letting up, as well as trying to increase the percent of attacks that are kills, while reducing errors. When we went up against Beach, playing as a team with a strong mental game and lots of communication were our biggest goals.
Bulldog serving has been very strong the last two weeks, but we struggled in the first match with 4 errors and only had 82 percent of serves go inbounds. Kaylee Septon had 3 aces in the first match. Our hitting percentage was just barely on the positive side with 11 kills and 10 errors. We dropped the first set, 22-25. In the remaining three matches, the girls really cleaned up their game –there were only 7 more service errors in the 3 remaining sets for a total of 11 and an 88.5 percent in service rating. Hitting also improved, with only 18 more errors for a total of 28. The girls faced a tough situation in the second set when setter Kaylee Septon dove for a ball and was injured. Forced to switch offense from a 6-2 to a 5-1 mid game, the girls struggled for a few points, but persevered to take the remaining three sets 25-19, 25-16, 25-16.
Lindsey Dix led the team with aces at 4, and Septon and Kelsie Goodshield contributed 3 each and the team had an amazing total of 17 service aces, a season high. The ladies also had a record night at the net with 46 kills for the evening, Stafford leading with 17 kills and 7 blocks, and Walby putting 12 kills down. Jo Smyle put up 30 assists. Roen checked in with 4 blocks. Lindsey Narum had a good night of passing, leading the team with a 2.14 out 3 possible rating. Maury Burke also played great defense with a rating of 2.05 and 2 digs. Sky Ruggles had an impressive 2.13 pass rating and 12 digs.
Bowman County volleyball travels to Hazen for a tough regional match up on Thursday, Oct. 13, before taking a much needed weekend off. We move into teacher’s convention week with a non-regional game against Lemmon on Tuesday, Oct. 18.
Jennifer Holecek is head volleyball coach for Bowman County School.
