The North Platte Lady Bulldogs volleyball team rose early Saturday morning and made the trip to Lincoln Southwest High School and came away with two upset victories over Lincoln North Star and Lincoln Southwest.
The ninth-ranked Lady Dawgs drew No. 8 North Star in the first match of the quad. North Platte jumped out to an early lead against the Navigators. Led by senior Kaitlynn Harvey’s five first-set kills North Platte won the first set 25-19. Star juniors Olivia Nicholson and Allison Kuenle took over in the second set leading the Lady Dawgs to a 25-16 win and taking the best-of-three match in straight sets. Nicholson finished with eight kills and four aces. Kuenle had seven kills, including six in the second set. She also added two aces while serving.
North Star ended North Platte’s season in 2013 with a 3-1 win in the district finals. Harvey enjoyed getting a little revenge on the Navigators.
“It was awesome,” Harvey said.
Coach Laura Miller echoed those statements.
“I was kind of like that pit [of losing last year] is gone,” Miller said. “That was pretty awesome.”
North Platte played No. 4 Lincoln Southwest in the second match of the day. The Lady Dawgs once again took the first set with a 25-22 win over the Silver Hawks. Nicholson and Kuenle led the way once again with seven kills each in the set. North Platte jumped out to a three point lead in the second set, but Lincoln Southwest came storming back and won the set 25-18. The Dawgs very easily could have hung their heads and accepted a loss to the fourth-ranked team, but instead they displayed great confidence and didn’t back down as they dominated the third set 25-16 for the 2-1 match win. Miller said there is a reason for the resilience her team showed.
“They’ve all gained a lot of confidence from last season,” Miller said. “I think we just started off at a higher level [this year] than we normally do so our confidence level is definitely there and that’s exciting.”
Nicholson finished the match with 22 kills, Kuenle followed with 13 kills, including the exclamation point, a resounding blast from the left side to finish it. Junior setter Alex Neff had three aces in the match and helped lead a stout North Platte defense.
North Platte showed great hustle in both matches and gave everything they had on every ball. Harvey said that’s a great way to play.
“It was really fun today,” she said. “I’m really glad we played well.”
Miller said the hustle displayed by North Platte was key to getting the two wins.
“With that kind of effort we kind of wear the other team down a little bit,” she said. “They’re kind of like ‘what do we got to do to get the ball on the ground’ and they finally just give up or make a mistake.”
With the two wins North Platte improves to 4-0 on the season, including wins over three ranked teams, No. 8 Lincoln North Star, No. 4 Lincoln Southwest and C1 No. 3 Ogallala. Miller said the other teams in the state have noticed the Bulldogs.
“We will definitely have a target on our back,” Miller said. “I’m going to welcome that and I think the kids will too.”
The Lady Bulldogs next game is on Thursday, September 11 at Grand Island Northwest. The Vikings are ranked fourth in Class B. First serve of the varsity match is scheduled for 7:00 PM and the game can be heard on ESPN Radio 1410 with the pregame show starting at approximately 6:45.