KCC Volleyball team picks up two conference wins

 

By Coach Tina Turn
The Bearcats’ first match of the season with Stephen-Argyle Central in September was canceled, so Tuesday, Nov. 10 was the first meeting of these rival volleyball teams. Kittson Central hosted what ended up being a late-evening battle to extra sets in the Northern Lights Conference match.
The Bearcats were comfortable with how they opened set one as they served 100 percent and had 3 aces. Serving tough helped to get our offense going, which was led by senior outside hitter McKenna Peterson. Peterson had 10 of her 24 kills in set one. The Storm offense put most of their balls in the left half of our court, which meant both Peterson and Jenna Davis picked up a bunch of digs to help their team to a 25-19 win.
In sets two and three, the Bearcats fell just short in both sets, 21-25. Junior middle hitter Cheyanne Scalese led the way at the net with 6 kills and 2.5 blocks in set two while in set three, no single hitter logged a bunch of kills, but five players contributed to the 8 kills. Our back court defense kept us in both of these sets while our serve receive struggled with some smart and tough serves by the Storm.
In sets two and three, the Bearcats eased up a bit on their attack, so in set four, they resumed their aggressive mindset and it paid dividends in the 25-14 win. Davis served two lengthy stretches and racked up 3 aces while Peterson led with 4 kills at the net. Scalese remained a solid presence at the net with 1.5 blocks and 2 kills.
In the deciding fifth set, the Bearcats went in with the momentum and other than the first couple of points, they sustained a comfortable lead by minimizing errors and communicating well. They got the job done 15-10 to move their season record to 3 wins and 1 loss.
Tonight was a good night for us, albeit a long night. The last couple of seasons we hadn’t played in a five-set match very often, so it was good to know that in this strange 2020 season, we could pull out a five-set win. Fatigue, both mental and physical, still plagued us in the match, but I think the strategies we employed to help dig deep at critical junctures were successful, and the girls can be proud of that.
As we move into our next games, we’ll work on setting our block better, moving our defense outside the shadow of the block, and fine-tuning our serve receive. Peterson had a career-high 24 kills in the match while Scalese had another double-digit kill night, an impressive 6 blocks, 4 aces, and 5 digs to put forth an exceptionally well-rounded effort. Davis lit up the defense with her 19 digs. Serving was key in the win with 93 percent and 11 aces.
Scores for other KCC teams:
JV won with scores of 23-25, 25-21 and 15-12
C team won, 26-28, 25-22, and 16-14
8th grade won, 25-21 and 25-5
7th grade won, 25-9 and 15-14

 

KCC STATS versus Stephen-Argyle
Player    Kills    Digs    Blocks    Assists    Serves    Aces
Jenna Davis    6    19    0    1    22/23    4
Courtney Fredrickson    6    5    .5    1    11/12    1
McKenna Peterson    24    10    0    1    16/19    1
Cheyanne Scalese    12    5    6    2    27/27    4
Gracie Whitlock    3    4    .5    42    12/12    0
Kira Whitlock    2    6    1    5    10/12    1

 

 
KCC vs Grygla-Goodridge
On Friday, Nov. 13, the Bearcat volleyball team traveled to Grygla, home of the Grygla-Goodridge Chargers for a Northern Lights Conference match.
The Bearcats started the night with very strong and consistent play in set one. Cheyanne Scalese slowed down the Charger attack with her 1.5 blocks while the team picked up 9 digs to keep our offense in it, led by Jenna Davis with 3 digs. Five aces were recorded in the 25-15 first set win.
KCC lost its edge a bit midway through set two when communication waned after G-G powered through a few nice kills to slice our lead to only 1 point, 16-15. With the Bearcats playing a little defeated, the Chargers continued to elevate their play while the Cats lost momentum. Down 19-22, a timeout was called, and coming out of the timeout, the Bearcats regrouped and played with an aggressive mindset. Unfortunately, it was too little too late as the Chargers nabbed the extra points to win 26-24.
In sets three and four, KCC resumed the focused and aggressive mindset that was the game plan for the night. The Cats had 18 kills in set three and 14 kills in set four. It was a varied attack across the board, including setter Gracie Whitlock, who recorded 6 of her 9 kills in the final two sets while Scalese had 10 of her 13 kills in the two sets as well. The wins came with the same score 25-12.
Serving truly was the star of the night. The team served 96 percent with 13 aces, but that doesn’t include the strong serves that worked to keep the Chargers out of system. That was for sure our most solid serving game of the season.
Except for the second set, the Bearcats played a pretty focused and consistent match. Serve receive passing can use some improvement, but the players did a good job keeping the ball in play despite that. One area we discovered we need to work on, however, is making plays with more intention. Just getting the ball over and putting it in six doesn’t cut it at the varsity level, so even though we got the win, we want to keep growing and improving our game.
It’s always nice to get a conference win, and this win moved our overall record to 4 wins and 1 loss.
Scores for other KCC teams:
JV won with scores of 25-22 and 25-23,
C team won, 25-17 and 25-23
8th grade won, 25-15 and 25-12
7th grade lost, 16-26 and 20-25

 

KCC STATS versus Grygla-Goodridge
Player    Kills    Digs    Blocks    Assists    Serves    Aces
Jenna Davis    8    10    0    2    23/23    4
Courtney Fredrickson    5    11    .5    1    18/19    1
McKenna Peterson    14    8    0    2    14/15    3
Cheyanne Scalese    13    6    1.5    4    10/10    1
Gracie Whitlock    9    5    1    34    19/20    3
Kira Whitlock    2    7    0    5    9/10    1