The Lady Cats Volleyball Team was certainly seriously tested in their final non-district game Tuesday evening (September 24) before district play begins Friday. The Lady Cats traveled to Nevada Community. Former Lady Cats Coach Justin Maness has the Lady Braves playing at a very high level. Community came into the match with a 25-5 record and ranked #12 in Class 4A. Community won the match 3-0. Still the Lady Cats hung with the Lady Braves for at least the first set. Late in the set, the Lady Cats rallied to tie the set, 21-21. The Lady Braves outscored the Lady Cats 4-1 to take set one, 25-22. Lady Cats Coach Bailey Dorner said the Lady Cats missed a couple of serves at the end of that set that hurt their chances. Coach Dorner said overall the Lady Cats struggled to pass the ball off of serve and receive impacting sets and the ability to get good kills. The Lady Cats started fairly well in set two and at one point trailed only 9-8. Then Community went on an eight point run to lead 17-8. Right near the end of the run, the Lady Cats’ major finisher Sadie Washburn suffered an ankle injury. As a precaution, coach Dorner said she decided not to play Washburn any more Tuesday. Coach Dorner is hoping with rest that Washburn will be able to play Friday against Royse City in the district opener at home. With Washburn out Tuesday, several Lady Cats players upped their games and Community only outscored the Lady Cats 8-7 after the injury in taking set two, 25-15. The Lady Braves completed the sweep with a 25-16 win in set three. In KSST unofficial stats, Sadie Washburn led the Lady Cats with 7 kills. She also had a service ace. Sydney Washburn had 4 kills with 1 block. Nylah Lindley had 3 kills. Setter Peyton Hammack, Brooklyn Burnside and Kate Womack all had 2 kills. Burnside had 2 blocks on one volley. Hammack has 2 service aces. Erika VanBenthem had 1 kill. Libero Czhela Moya had a pair of service aces. The Lady Cats season record is now 18-11 and they have lost their last two matches. Any coach will tell you a more relevant stat is that all the district teams enter play Friday tied with 0-0 records. The Lady Cats open district play Friday at 5 p.m. against Royse City in the main gym at Sulphur Springs High School. KSST will broadcast the game with Wildcats football taking this Friday night off.
