Lady Cats down Burlington, Piper for season’s first wins

Louisburg’s Allie Kennedy (left) and Claire Brown (right) celebrate a Hailey Sword (9) kill Tuesday during the Lady Cats’ home match against Piper.

The start of the season didn’t go as the Louisburg volleyball team had hoped.

Louisburg lost its first three games last week and needed to find a way to get into the win column.

Tuesday’s triangular with Burlington and Piper gave the Lady Cats exactly what they were looking for. Louisburg hosted the two schools and earned a pair of victories, including a competitive 2-1 win over Piper to end the night.

The Lady Cats (2-3) opened the competition with an easy 25-17 and 25-12 win over Burlington.

“It was great to finally get a couple of wins under our belt,” Louisburg coach Leanna Willer said. “We played much better and we started to find a rhythm within our team during that second game against Piper. It was really nice to see different girls step up at different times to combine for two good team wins.”

Louisburg made the plays it needed to in the 26-24, 21-25 and 25-16 victory over Piper.

In the first set, junior Madelyn Williams tied the match at 19-all with an ace, but Piper responded to score the next two points. Louisburg then took advantage of two Piper mistakes, and an Adyson Ross ace, to give itself a 22-21 advantage. 

Louisburg senior Allie Kennedy followed the up with a kill and Ross added another ace to make it 24-21. Piper took the next three points to tie it again, before Kennedy had back-to-back kills to end the match.

The Lady Cats put themselves in a big hole in the second set as they found themselves down 12-4, but put together a big rally to tie the match at 13. Even though, Louisburg lost the set, it used that momentum in the third.

“I was impressed with our perseverance during the Piper match as we had a rough start to the second set but kept pushing through and gained momentum that carried us through the third,” Willer said. “We had a lot more energy during this game with the level of competition that Piper brought, and it was so fun to see the crowd feed into it as well.”

Defense came to life in the third set for Louisburg, especially at the net. Kennedy, Ross and Emma Prettyman all had blocks that helped build a 19-13 advantage and an eventual victory.

“We finally started to block some balls and slow down their offense,” Willer said. “We have been working on blocking over the past week so it was great to see that aspect of our game improve. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of getting a block. It definitely fires up every single person on the team.”

Louisburg had a well-rounded attack at the net against Piper as Kennedy led the way with 10 kills and two blocks. Ross finished with eight kills and a team-high three blocks, while Prettyman had eight kills and a block.

Junior Hailey Sword also finished with eight kills in the match and senior Claire Brown had seven.

Ross also had a big night from behind the service line as she had four aces, while Sword and Brown each had two.

Junior Megan Quinn ran the offense well with 28 assists against the Pirates and Brown was big on defense for Louisburg with a team-high 21 digs. Sword (13), Quinn (12) and senior Ava Jorn (11) also had double-figure dig numbers.

The Lady Cats controlled their match against Burlington from the start.

Louisburg had 10 aces against the Wildcats. Williams led the way with four and Brown added three of her own. Ross and Kennedy each led the attack at the net with six kills each, while Quinn had 19 assists.

“I loved to see us meshing better together as a team and everyone stepping up in their role,” Willer said. “It takes each and everyone of us doing our jobs to play our best.”

The Lady Cats are back in action tonight when they travel to Bonner Springs for a Frontier League dual. The match is set to begin at 6:30 p.m.

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