Lady Cats back on track after runner-up finish at home tourney

Louisburg senior Davis Guetterman tips the ball past the outstretched arms of an Olathe North player Saturday during the Louisburg Invitational.

For being the No. 1 ranked team in the state at one point, the Louisburg volleyball team has been going through some growing pains as of late.

The Lady Cats lost three of their last four matches going into the Louisburg Invitational on Saturday, but that wasn’t even the worst of it.

Louisburg also found out it would be without starting middle Allie Kennedy, who is out for the season with an injury. Kennedy, who is the tallest player on the Lady Cat roster and among the team leaders in kills, was a big absence in their lineup.

Head coach Leanna Willer spent the last week trying to figure out what would work best for her team moving forward. As it turned out, she got her answer on Saturday after her team finished second at their home tournament.

The Lady Cats won their first four matches of the day to advance to the championship match, where they lost a tough one to Shawnee Mission East, 20-25, 25-20 and 25-9.

“Overall, I thought the tournament went really well,” Willer said. “We found a rotation that seemed to work for us a little bit more. After a tough week for us, we felt like we found our groove. I was really proud of them all day. 

“Coming in we were hoping, playing five games, that we could figure some things out. We needed to figure out a rotation without Allie that was going to be successful for us and we needed to figure out what to do defensively. This tournament was really important starting off with those first two matches, where we were able to roll and set the middles a lot. Everyone was equally contributing and that is what we want to see.”

Junior Adyson Ross was the change for the Lady Cats as she replaced Kennedy in the middle and played all six rotations. Ross had a strong tournament with a team-high 15 aces to go along with 20 kills and 17 digs.

Ross served 11 straight points in the Lady Cats’ semifinal victory over Olathe North and helped her team cruise to the championship.

“Adyson played awesome,” Willer said. “We figured out that we want her on the court all the way around. Her defense is good, her serve receive is good and she is doing it as a middle, which has to be exhausting. She stepped up big time for us. She had some good swings and I am proud of how she has stepped up in that role, after not anticipating this at all to begin the season. She had so many aces today and her serve is very good.”

Louisburg got its day going with a 25-7 and 25-7 victory over Highland Park to begin pool play and then followed it up a 25-10 and 25-10 victory over Leavenworth. 

The Lady Cats (14-6) faced off with Shawnee Mission East in the final round of pool play and put together one of their better matches of the day in a 25-17 and 25-23 win over the Lancers.

Olathe North came calling in the semifinal and the Lady Cats made quick work of the Eagles in a 25-11 and 25-20 victory, which set up a rematch with Shawnee Mission East.

Louisburg picked up right where it left off as it won the first set, before the Lancers battled back to tie it up in the second. The Lady Cats couldn’t get much going in the third as they finished with just nine points.

“Even the second set I didn’t think was that bad,” Willer said. “Shawnee Mission East is a good team and you are going to lose some sets to good teams and going three is not that big of a deal. We’ve done it a lot lately.

“You could tell there was a momentum shift and then in the third set we had more errors than we did points. You are not going to win a lot of games like that. We were looking for someone to step up and that didn’t happen. I think we were trying, but we were trying to do too much.”

Senior Corinna McMullen had a big day for the Lady Cats as she finished with a team-high 29 kills and 36 assists. She was second on the team with five blocks and 32 digs, to go along with six aces.

Davis Guetterman, another senior, had a big day from behind the service-line with 13 aces and had 35 assists and 17 kills.

Middle blocker Emma Prettyman had a team-best six blocks and finished with 22 kills. Sophomore Hailey Sword had 17 kills from her outside spot.

Senior Chase Kallevig once again led the Louisburg defense with a team-high 43 digs, while senior Aubryn Berck and Guetterman was second on the squad with 21 each. Kallevig and Berck also had nine and eight aces, respectively.

Lady Cats fall to Ottawa, Girard; beat Fort Scott

Last Tuesday, Louisburg traveled to Ottawa for a Frontier League dual, and despite getting off to a good start, left with a 3-2 setback to the Cyclones.

The Lady Cats won the first two sets, but Cyclones roared back to win the next three to hand Louisburg a 24-26, 22-25, 25-19, 25-17 and 15-9 loss.

“Ottawa was very scrappy and they played very smart, and they have always been that way,” Willer said. “Their coach is smart and they pick on weaknesses like no one else. We could not block a ball and there were times they had a wide open net. We have great defenders, but they aren’t that great where they don’t need a block up. They have a lot of girls that can put the ball away. It is getting better, but we are figuring out slowly.”

Corinna McMullen and Davis Guetterman led the Lady Cats at the net with 15 and 10 kills, respectively and they each had 19 assists.

Senior Aubryn Berck led Louisburg with five aces from behind the service line, while Chase Kallevig had a team-high 18 digs.

Two days later, the Lady Cats ventured to Girard for a triangular with Fort Scott and they left there with a split.

Louisburg opened with a 25-19 and 26-24 loss to Girard, but followed it up with a 25-22 and 25-14 win over Fort Scott.

“It was a weird day,” Willer said. “In year’s past, they haven’t been as strong as they are this year. We are a little weaker at the moment than we have been, and we didn’t come in ready to play. Girard had some good swings, but they passed very well. We missed a decent amount of serves, but it wasn’t one thing that went wrong, it was kind of a combination of everything. Everything that could go wrong, did. 

“We stepped up against Fort Scott. We had the conversation where we can focus on how awful we just played, or we can turn around and figure out how to get a win out of tonight. It was nice to see they stepped up it against Fort Scott.”

McMullen had a team-high 16 kills in the triangular and Guetterman had 10 of her own. Emma Prettyman had eight kills to go along with three blocks.

Guetterman led Louisburg with 20 assists and three aces. Kallevig had a team-best 16 digs, while Berck and Claire Brown had 14 and 13, respectively.