Lady Cats fall to a pair of state-ranked teams at home

Louisburg’s Davis Guetterman (left) sets up teammate Carleigh Pritchard for a kill last week at home against Spring Hill.

In recent years, the Louisburg
volleyball team has experienced a lot of success, so whenever the Lady Cats go
on a losing streak it is unchartered territory at times.

However, in most seasons, the Lady
Cats won’t go through the type of schedule they have seen the last two weeks.
Whether is from ranked teams in bigger programs, or just bigger schools, Louisburg
has been tested early.

The Lady Cats’ woes continued last
week as it fell to the No. 7-ranked team in Class 6A, Mill Valley, 24-26,
25-18, 25-19 and 26-24, on Thursday in Louisburg. In their home opener on
Tuesday, the Lady Cats fell to the No. 3-ranked team in 5A, Spring Hill, in
four sets as well.

Louisburg has now lost five
matches in a row, dating back to the Lansing Invitational earlier this month,
and are 5-7 on the season. In all five matches, the Lady Cats have been without
senior starter Erin Lemke, who has been out with an injury.

“Losing five in a row is rough, but I feel like we’ve made some
big improvements over the past week,” Louisburg coach Jessica Compliment said. “We
still have some areas we need to improve on and some areas we need to clean up,
but as a whole, the team played well against Mill Valley. They fought hard
until the last whistle.”

It was a good start for Louisburg
against Mill Valley as they were able to take the first set, but came up short
in the next two. The Lady Cats found themselves down 24-20 in the fourth, but
sophomore Rinny McMullen served four straight points to tie the set for
Louisburg, but Mill Valley won the next two volleys to take the set and the
match.

Juniors Alyse Moore and Carleigh
Pritchard were strong at the net with 12 and 11 kills, respectively, while
seniors Liz Jacobs and Haley Cain each tallied seven.

McMullen and fellow setter Davis
Guetterman ran the team well as they finished with 21 and 15 assists,
respectively, and McMullen also added two aces in the match.

Defensively, the Lady Cats played
well at times as senior libero Reilly Ratliff-Becher led the way with a
team-high 20 digs, while senior Riley Kallevig finished with 11 and Guetterman
added 10. At the net, Pritchard led Louisburg with four blocks.

“I thought we played well for the
majority of the match,” Compliment said. “There wasn’t one or two single plays
that would have changed the outcome, but we did make a few mistakes that hurt
us at crucial times or in various times throughout the match. There was some
really good volleyball played against Mill Valley, which should hopefully
provide some needed confidence for the team.”

Against Spring Hill, the Lady Cats
had their second straight setback in the Frontier League as they fell 25-19,
25-22, 20-25 and 25-16.

Pritchard, the team’s middle
hitter, was a force at the net as she posted a team-high 17 kills and was one
three Lady Cat players to reach double figures in that department. Jacobs and
Cain both had 11 and 10 kills, respectively, and Kallevig finished with eight.

“During that first set, we just
had way too many unforced errors,” Compliment said. “Carleigh had a really big
night for us and played well. We talked to the girls about being vocal leaders
on the court and I thought Haley really stepped up as a leader for us.”

McMullen and Guetterman were responsible
for a lot of those big plays on the front row. McMullen finished with a
team-high 27 assists and Guetterman also had a big night with 18.

Pritchard was also a force defensively as she recorded six blocks, while Ratliff-Becher led the back row with 29 digs. Kallevig also added 18 in the loss.

In its 12 matches on the season, all
but three of them have been against teams in Class 5A or higher and five have
been against state-ranked opponents.

Louisburg will have a busy week
once again as it travels to Ottawa tonight for a Frontier League dual and then
will go to Fort Scott on Thursday for a triangular with Girard. The Lady Cats
will end it Saturday with the Louisburg Invitational.