Lebanon High School’s varsity volleyball team beat Fatima and split matches with both Marshfield and Columbia Hickman at the Missouri Cooperage Pinkfest Tournament Saturday, Head Coach Jenny Collins reported.
In bracket play, the team had a quarterfinal win over Columbia Battle and a semifinal loss versus West Plains.
The team beat Willard to capture third place.
Tournament stat leaders:
Aces: Baylyn Williams 11, Liv Ahmann 9, Addi Dent 8
Kills: Liv Ahmann 41, Lily Waterman 24
Assists: Harper Starnes 41
Kill Blocks: Liv Ahmann 5, Keira Reid 5
Digs: Addi Dent 61, Lily Waterman 55
Coach Jenny Collins praised her team’s performance.
“Our annual Missouri Cooperage Pinkfest Tournament always brings in a solid competitive line-up of teams, and it's always a great opportunity to work through solid competition to help us prepare for the last week of regular season as well as the upcoming district tournament,” she wrote.
“We spent a full day competing hard and showing how far we’ve come this season,” she continued. “We won a match in pool play and split with two teams, advancing to bracket play as the second seed from our pool. In pool play, we set the tone early by splitting with Marshfield, the top-seeded team in our upcoming district. At this point in the season, it’s exciting to see us playing some of our best volleyball and seeing what we have been working towards all season coming together.”
Collins said the third-place win against Willard was a rewarding redemption for the team’s earlier loss against Willard in the season. Earning third place showed Collins that the team was continuing to find ways to win.
“I'm really proud of our efforts, as once we reached bracket play we played three back-to-back matches and had to immediately focus on the next and new task at hand. The girls showed resilience and grit not giving up on the battle in front of them,” she wrote.
Senior Night (Oct. 14)
At the senior night home match against Carthage Tuesday, the Lady Yellowjackets lost in five sets, Collins reported. Collins said the match closed out the regular season. The night recognized seniors Addi Dent, Keira Reid, Lily Waterman and Baylyn Williams between the junior varsity and varsity matches.
Collins said the varsity team started out strong against Carthage’s defense and out-of-system attacks in the first two sets, but Carthage’s victory in the third set gave them momentum to beat Lebanon in two more sets afterwards.
“Even in defeat, the team’s effort was encouraging. We’ll use that momentum to continue to refine our offensive strategy and help hitters gain confidence which will hopefully help us to convert more scoring opportunities,” Collins wrote.
Varsity’s set records were 30-28 (Lebanon), 25-22 (Lebanon), 25-23 (Carthage), 25-20 (Carthage), and 15-9 (Carthage).
Varsity stat leaders:
Aces: Baylyn Williams, Harper Starnes, Addi Dent 3
Kills: Liv Ahmann 16, Lily Waterman 11
Digs: Harper Starnes 29, Addi Dent 28
Assists: Harper Starnes 35
Kill Blocks: Liv Ahmann 3, Rikki Reimers 3
Junior varsity lost two sets: 25-10 (Carthage), 25-13 (Carthage).
Junior varsity stat leaders:
Aces: Graicyn Hazlewood 2
Kills: Milly Carr 2
Digs: Graicyn Hazlewood 8
Assists: Lauren Ledbetter 2
Kill Blocks: Jara Milligan and Rikki Reimers 1
The freshman team lost in three sets: 25-18 (Carthage), 25-19 (Lebanon), 15-13 (Carthage).
Freshman stat leaders:
Aces: Sissily Guhr 3, Brinley Carr and Kielynn Vernon Torres 2
Kills: Lily Eden 6, Kylee Jones and Brinley Carr 4
Digs: Lauren Ledbetter 13, Brayli Ogle and Sissily Guhr 9
Assists: Lauren Ledbetter 17
EDIT: Switched location to Sports section instead of local news.
