Lady Vikings rack up wins heading into key week
WAUSA – Hey everybody, don’t look now, but the Wausa Lady Vikings volleyball team was 15-5 heading into a new week.
Following another successful slate of matches, Wausa heads into a key week of 2022 calendar dates coming off another strong run of performances.
The Lady Vikings defeated the Osmond Lady Tigers 3-0 (25-20, 25-15, 25-17) on Oct. 4 on the road.
“This match was a good match to learn from in terms of fighting through adversity,” Wausa head coach Greg Conn said. “In the first set, Alexa (Cunningham) went down hard with an ankle injury and we had to push through to win the set.
“Kate Lundberg and Ashlynn Timmerman answered the call and came off the bench and handled the duties and helped get us that first-set victory,” he said. “In the next two sets, we just played clean volleyball and got our offense hitting on all cylinders. We served aggressively and played good floor defense.”
In the win against Osmond, junior Hunter West (10 kills, six digs), senior Alexa Cunningham (eight kills, three blocks), sophomore Bailey West (seven kills), junior Sienna West (27 assists), senior Alexis Munter (five kills) and senior Abby Kaiser (nine digs) all contributed for Wausa.
During a triangular on Oct. 6 in Chambers, the Lady Vikings defeated the Chambers/Wheeler Central Lady Renegades 2-0 (25-12, 25-12) and fell to the Elgin Public-Pope John Lady Wolfpack 2-1 (12-25, 25-12, 25-20).
“In the first set, we came out swinging and playing great floor defense,” Conn said of the EPPJ match. “We made very few mistakes and kept the pressure on them from the start. We played loose and confident the entire match.
“The second set was almost a carbon copy of the first set (except) it was us making unforced errors and then their hitters got cranked up and blocking improved as well,” he said.
“In the third set, we got behind early, but clawed our way back into the game,” he said. “We got aggressive at the net and from the serving line as well.”
Wausa cut the EPPJ lead to 23-20 in the third set and had all of the momentum, but fell short in the end.
“It was a good match for both teams, but when you have a team down like EPPJ in the first set, you have to stay on top of them right away in the next set,” Conn said.
“Especially when you are playing (best-of-three), there is little room for error and that kind of bit us in the second set when we had all of the momentum,” he said.
During the win over CWC, the Lady Vikings’ Hunter West (12 kills), Cunningham (six kills) and Sienna West (26 assists) led the way.
In the loss to EPPJ, Hunter West (13 kills), Cunningham (eight kills), Bailey West (eight kills), Kaiser (10 digs) and Sienna West (30 assists) were the top Wausa performers.
On Oct. 8, the Lady Vikings took second in the Hartington-Newcastle Volleyball Tournament in Hartington.
They defeated the Tri County Northeast Lady Wolfpack 2-1 (25-17, 21-25, 25-12) and the North Central Lady Knights 2-0 (25-17, 25-18) before losing to the Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Lady Bears 2-1 (25-14, 18-25, 25-23) in the championship match.
“When the dust settled, we had a really good day,” Conn said. “When you start out the first match of the day in 60-degree conditions, the inside temp, you are a little slow, but we did what we had to do against both TCNE and North Central to meet our goal of getting to the championship game for the first time since we have been coming to this tournament.
“In the last game of the day, LCC was hitting on all cylinders, looking like this would go in two sets,” he said. “During the break, we made some adjustments, and our blocking was better. We know we can play with anyone, and this group just gets more determined as we get into the tournament portion of our season.”
During the win over TCNE, Wausa’s Hunter West (18 kills), Cunningham (10 kills), Bailey West (six kills) and Kaiser (10 digs) played big.
In beating North Central, Hunter West (11 kills), Kaiser (12 digs) and Sienna West (23 assists) led the way for the Lady Vikings.
Hunter West (16 kills), Bailey West (seven kills), Cunningham (three solo blocks) and Sienna West (25 assists and six digs) spearheaded Wausa’s efforts in the championship match against LCC.
Kaiser said her level of belief has remained high as the Lady Vikings continue to evolve in the right direction.
“We never give up on ourselves and each of us want it more than anyone else,” Kaiser said.
“We play until the whistle blows and won’t let anything drop while trying our best to get the ball up,” she said.
“We did a lot more (defensive) practice and weren’t just hitting the whole time (in the offseason),” she said.
The Lady Vikings were scheduled to play Oct. 10-11 in the Knox County Volleyball Tournament in Crofton and host the Wynot Lady Blue Devils on Oct. 13.
Seedings for the Lewis and Clark Conference Volleyball Tournament came out on Oct. 11.
The conference tournament is scheduled for Oct. 15 and Oct. 17-18.
Conn said if Wausa earns a top-four seed, it will get a bye and not have to play until Oct. 17.
“As far as what the sub-district pairing would be as of right now, we would be the third seed and more than likely play Cedar Catholic,” Conn said.
“However, like I have said before, the seeding is done by power points, and if we keep winning, we could make a jump in that bracket,” he said. “A lot of games to play and we are certainly looking forward to the challenge.”
