Lady Blues’ season ends against Krum Lady Cats

The Lady Blues’ record-breaking season came to an end Saturday afternoon after losing 3-0 to Krum in the area round of the playoffs. The team entered the matchup in Henrietta with a school-record 40 wins and was looking to make it to the regional playoffs for the first time since 2017.

The first two sets were closely contested. The Lady Blues struggled to maintain serve; however, the team fought and were in contention throughout. Behind kills from Addison Kimberling and Chloe Menard, the Lady Blues jumped ahead quickly. The Lady Cats responded back quickly with two kills to even the score. Kimberling scored on a kill to give the Lady Blues a 3-2 lead. The Lady Cats play a quick style of volleyball, and the Lady Blues kept up for most of the set. It was the serving of Paige Orsi and Miranda Guffy which caused trouble for the Lady Blues in the match.

“When you’re going up against a player who can put sidespin on a serve, that’s tough to prepare for,” coach Marci Faulk said. “It’s a serve that’s hard to simulate even with a machine.”

The opening set was tightly contested. Neither team could pull ahead by more than three points. The Lady Blues only held leads on three occasions, each lead of one point. The set was even at 21-21 before a Lady Blues double and out of bounds gave Krum a two-point advantage. Faulk called a time out and the team briefly responded. Ashton Reece scored on a kill, then the Lady Cats returned a ball out of bounds, and the score was even again at 23-23. The Lady Blues gave up consecutive points on shots into the net to give the Lady Cats the 25-23 win to open the match.

In the second set, the  Lady Blues jumped ahead once again. Reese scored on the second serve to give the Lady Blues a second 2-0 lead. However, as in the first set, the Lady Cats quickly responded. Orsi scored on back-to-back block/kills to even the score.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Nov. 13 edition of The Graham Leader.