Lady Cats come up short to Olathe North on Senior Night

Louisburg senior Riley Kallevig sends a shot over the net Thursday during the Lady Cats’ match with Olathe North on Senior Night.

On what was supposed to be a night
of celebrating the work of six Louisburg seniors, Thursday’s match against
Olathe North ended on a sour note.

The Lady Cats, who were playing
their final home match of the season, fell behind early to the Eagles and
couldn’t catch up in a 25-18, 25-22, 17-25 and 25-23 loss during Senior Night at
Louisburg High School.

Before the match, the Lady Cats
honored seniors Haley Cain, Liz Jacobs, Riley Kallevig, Sydni Keagle, Erin
Lemke and Reilly Ratliff-Becher. Many of those seniors played big roles in the
Lady Cats’ run to back-to-back state championship appearances.

“These
six seniors are a special group,” Louisburg coach Jessica Compliment said. “It’s
been fun to watch them grow and develop over the years. A good portion of them
have been on varsity since they were freshmen or sophomores, so they’ve been
key players in our recent success.

“They’ve
put in a lot of work over the years, and they aren’t done yet this year.
Hopefully, they’ll have an opportunity to play at state again this season. This
is a special group of seniors who get along really well. They are a fun bunch
to coach.”

Olathe North jumped on the Lady Cats early on in the first set as the Eagles opened the match on a 14-4 run. Louisburg tried to claw back, and cut the Eagle lead to 18-14 at one point, but couldn’t get any closer.

In the second set, the Lady Cats traded leads with the Eagles, but back-to-back kills from Jacobs gave Louisburg a 19-17 advantage late. Olathe North responded with a 6-1 run to help win the set and take a 2-0 lead.

Louisburg responded nicely in the third set as it went on a 6-0 run of its own behind the serving from sophomore Davis Guetterman to put the Lady Cats up 17-8 and they didn’t look back. Junior Carleigh Pritchard also recorded a pair of kills and a block during that run.

The
Lady Cats didn’t have enough in the fourth set to keep the match alive, but
made it interesting. Louisburg’s defense stepped up late won a big point to
take a 16-15 lead after a long volley that was kept alive on a big dig from
Ratliff-Becher.

Louisburg once against battled back from a three-point deficit to go up 23-22 on an ace from Chase Kallevig, but the Eagles scored the final three points to take the set and the match.

“It was tough to lose on Senior Night,” Compliment said. “You always want to be able to send the seniors off with a final win on their home court. Olathe North was smart and played aggressive the entire evening.”

Cain and Pritchard played big in the middle as the two players led the Lady Cats with 12 kills each. Jacobs also finished with nine on the outside and sophomore Rinny McMullen had six from the setter’s spot.

Louisburg also served well at times as it had nine aces, including five from Guetterman, who served 13 points. McMullen led the Lady Cat offense with 21 assists and Guetterman added 12.

Defensively, Riley Kallevig led the team
in digs with 15, while Ratliff-Becher finished with 12 and Chase Kallevig added
10. Lemke finished with a team-high three blocks along with Pritchard.

The Lady Cats will try and bounce back
tonight when it travels to Piper for their final regular season match of the
season.

Louisburg goes winless at Emporia

Louisburg traveled to the Emporia
Invitational on Saturday, and like much of its season, the Lady Cats went up
against bigger programs, some of which were state-ranked.

It was a tough outing for the Lady Cats
as they lost all four of their matches.

Louisburg lost to Bishop Carroll (25-17,
25-21), Shawnee Heights (25-20, 20-25, 25-17), Bonner Springs (25-23, 25-17)
and Lawrence (25-22, 21-25 and 25-14).

“Saturday was a rough and tough day,”
Compliment said. “Yes, we did see some tough competition, but we had moments
where we could have pulled away with a win or at least played closer with
a few of the teams. We made quite a few service errors which cost us a lot of
points throughout the day. This tournament is similar to the Lansing tournament
as far as level of play and teams. We were lacking intensity throughout the
day, and other teams showed a lot more emotion and drive.

“There were moments though where I
thought we were turning around and fighting back to win, but unfortunately we
came up short each time.  We had some great defensive plays throughout the
day, and our serve receive was pretty consistent as well.”