Lady Cats get back on winning track with three wins

By Andy Brown
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Updated: September 25, 2020

Andy Brown / Louisburg Sports Zone

Louisburg senior Ali Prettyman goes up for a kill during Tuesday’s home league match against Ottawa.

After a difficult week that saw the Louisburg volleyball team come up short in four of its last five matches, things began to take a turn for the better this week for the Lady Cats.

Louisburg got back on the winning track with a 3-1 victory over Ottawa in a Frontier League dual on Tuesday, and then followed it up with a pair of easy victories Thursday against Fort Scott and Girard.

Tuesday’s game against Ottawa was the starting point in the 25-19, 25-17, 24-26 and 25-22 victory in which the Lady Cats had to overcome a little adversity. After the Cyclones won the third set, they appeared they were going to force a deciding fifth set.

Ottawa went on a 12-2 run to take a 19-14 advantage in that fourth set, but Louisburg dug deep as senior Ali Prettyman and sophomore Adyson Ross provided big kills to tie the match at 22-all. Sophomore Allie Kennedy gave Louisburg the lead with a kill of her own and then senior Carleigh Pritchard added back-to-back kills to ice the match.

“Overall I think we played well against Ottawa,” Louisburg coach Jessica Compliment said. “Ottawa is a good team, and they weren’t going to give us anything easy. We needed to earn each point. All of the players stepped up at crucial points during the match and contributed.”

Louisburg (8-5) got production from up and down its lineup as the Lady Cats got kills from seven different players and Pritchard led the way with a team-high 17 kills and four blocks. Senior Alyse Moore tallied 13 kills, while junior Rinny McMullen and Kennedy each had 12 and 10, respectively.

Ali Prettyman had six kills, Ross finished with five and Emma Prettyman ended with two. Kennedy also had four blocks, while Ali Prettyman and Moore finished with two.

However, the offense all got going thanks to McMullen. The junior setter had a team-high 46 assists and also had nine digs.

***Sophomore Allie Kennedy rises up for a block Tuesday during the Lady Cats’ match with Ottawa.***

Juinior libero Chase Kallevig led the way defensively with 23 digs, Moore had 16 and senior Madi Quinn added 13. Senior defensive player Sydney Keaton finished with seven digs.

Louisburg was able to field its full roster for the first time this season on Thursday when the Lady Cats traveled to Fort Scott. Setter Davis Guetterman returned from injury and they had a complete lineup for their 25-17, 25-16 win over Fort Scott and the 25-21 and 25-20 win over Girard.

“The players have been very good about stepping in and adjusting to any changes,” Compliment said. “Hopefully we’ll be able to find some consistency which I think we help eliminate some of the communication errors we have from time to time.”

The Lady Cats return to action Saturday when they host Shawnee Mission South and Leavenworth in a triangular in what was supposed to be the Louisburg Invitational. Due to cancellations, it turned into two triangulars instead of a tournament.