Wildcats finish third at home tournament

The Louisburg volleyball team delivered a strong showing at their home tournament Saturday, finishing third overall at the Louisburg Invitational with a 3-2 record in round-robin play.

The Wildcats picked up key wins over Basehor-Linwood (25-22, 25-21), Shawnee Mission South (25-18, 20-25, 26-24), and Shawnee Mission West (26-24, 15-25, 25-12), showing balance across the lineup. Their only losses on the day came against a tough Olathe North squad (14-25, 27-25, 25-14) and Shawnee Mission East (25-13, 26-24), both Class 6A programs.

“It was a long day, but we only have ourselves to blame for that,” Louisburg coach Rich Brown said. “With such a small number of teams for our tournament, we have to avoid making our matches last three sets. We have trouble starting our second sets in most of our matches and it showed when we started our final match of the day against Shawnee Mission East.”

Setter Adelyn Moore was a catalyst for the offense, racking up 100 assists across the five matches and adding eight aces to her stat line. The junior playmaker consistently put her hitters in position to succeed.

Offensively, Caileigh Kilgore led the way at the net with a team-best 30 kills, while fellow seniors Delaney Nelsen and McKenna Lohse provided a strong supporting cast. Nelsen recorded 26 kills, seven aces, and 30 digs, while Lohse added 24 kills, a team-high eight aces, and seven blocks.

Junior Breck Nielsen and senior Rylee Telken were also key contributors, finishing with 22 and 21 kills, respectively. Telken chipped in defensively with six blocks.

On the back line, junior libero Regan Williams anchored the defense with a team-high 37 digs, while Kilgore added 32 to round out a strong all-around performance.

“Like everyone else in the world, we get comfortable playing our favorite style, whether that is where we go for coverage or what set we ask for as a hitter or where we like to place our tips,” Brown said. “The problem is other teams have scouted us well and know what our tendencies are. Our players started to figure that out in our afternoon matches and went to what would score for us, rather than what we thought were the safest plays.”

On Sept. 23, the Wildcats traveled to Eudora and left with a 3-0 loss to the Cardinals but rebounded nicely two days later.

Louisburg picked up a pair of wins against Fort Scott and Girard at Fort Scott High School. The Wildcats edged Fort Scott in three sets, 2-1 (25-23, 21-25, 25-19), before sweeping Girard (25-19, 25-10).

Kilgore again led the offense with 17 kills and a team-high five aces, while Nielsen tallied 13 kills and Lohse added 11. Moore dished out 46 assists and added three aces, matching Telken and Lohse in that category. Nelsen led the defense with 13 digs.

“After the Eudora match, we talked a little bit about how well Eudora took us out of our style of play,” Brown said. “We were forced out of system over and over and the only way to change that is to get better at passing as a team. Against Fort Scott and Girard our passing was much better and we were able to do a lot more with our middle blockers getting attacks.”

With a 14-6 record, Louisburg returns home to host rival Paola today in a key Frontier League matchup.