The Arlington High School volleyball team earned its spot against the Nebraska Capitol Conference's top seed during a play-in match Monday evening.
Coach Erin Stosich's team won the five-set home battle with the Logan View/Scribner-Snyder Raiders, securing a first-round tournament matchup against Class C2 No. 2 Yutan 24 hours later.
“We knew that we just had to put our all into it because we have more matches to play,” Macy Wolf said after Monday's victory. “We really want to get to that game tomorrow.”
The Cheiftains (23-0 overall), however, earned a 3-0 sweep in Tuesday's matchup. The top seed won at home, 25-13, 25-9 and 25-16.
“Everyone had some good hustle throughout the night,” Stosich said. “Just couldn't quite out it altogether.”
Challee Shearer, the coach noted, played strong defense against Yutan.
On Monday, though, the Eagles went the distance with Logan View — 18-25, 25-22, 25-11, 23-25 and 15-10. Wolf said AHS was confident going into the fifth set, having defeated the Raiders once already this season. The junior's back-to-back ace serves at 6-3 and 7-3 helped the Eagles pull away.
“I know Neveah (Vacha) is a really good defensive player, so it felt really good to get a couple aces on her,” Wolf said.
Lacey Bosshart added a kill at 9-4 before a long rally ended in Arlington's favor at 10-6 when Logan View was unable to return another of the sophomore's swings in the middle. The Eagle said she surveys the floor before making such attacks.
“Then, just trying to go for it and swing through,” Bosshart said of her strategy.
A Kaylie Herman ace pushed AHS' fifth-set lead to 12-6 before another Bosshart kill at 13-6. With two hands, Peyton Timm pushed the ball to the back corner of the floor for another point before a Herman swing, ultimately, led to the end of the match.
Earlier during the match, the Eagles lost the first set before taking the second 25-22 with Timm, Wolf and Rylie Kyllo all delivering late kills.
The home team then dominated the third set with Mylee Hadan serving more than 10 straight times as Arlington's lead jumped from 9-7 to 22-7. Wolf notched at least four kills during the stretch.
The Eagles took multiple late leads on attacks by Hayley Arp, Wolf and Timm during the fourth set, too, but the Raiders eventually sent the NCC Tourney match to a fifth set with three consecutive points.
Even, so, Arlington remained upbeat and earned the win — its seventh of the season after winning two all of last year.
“We had a positive attitude,” Bosshart said when asked for a key to the match victory. “We just kept going even if we got down by a point or two. We kept going because we knew we could do it.”
Coach Stosich's team was scheduled to play another conference match Thursday before it next competes at Syracuse on Tuesday. AHS will host the NCC third-place and championship matches this Saturday, too, beginning at 1 p.m.
AHS VOLLEYBALL LINE SCORES
Tuesday
No. 2 Yutan 3, Arlington 0
AHS (7-20) 13 9 16 — 0
YHS (23-0) 25 25 25 — 3
Monday
Arlington 3, Logan View/Scribner-Snyder 2
LVSS (6-20) 25 22 11 25 10 — 2
AHS (7-19) 18 25 25 23 15 — 3
