Lady Cats remain perfect in league

By Andy Brown
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Updated: October 7, 2015

Louisburg senior Megan Lemke dives to the floor for a dig during the Lady Cats’ home match against Spring Hill on Tuesday. Lemke and the Lady Cats defeated the Broncos 3-0 to move to 4-0 in league play.

The Louisburg High School volleyball team is one step closer to capturing its undefeated Frontier League title following its match Tuesday against Spring Hill.

The Lady Cats made quick work of the Broncos inside the LHS gymnasium with a 25-12, 25-15 and 25-22 victory. Louisburg now has a record of 23-10 and is 4-0 in league play, but even though it is later in the season, the Lady Cats decided to change some things up.

Louisburg altered its rotation a little bit starting senior Megan Lemke in the back row with libero Makenzie Kallevig and Anna Dixon and having Madison Turner, setter Sophie McMullen and Lauren Dunn start up front.

“We flipped flopped the middles around, so we just moved Madison and Cate (Stambaugh) around in the lineup and we just rotated the offense,” Louisburg coach Jessica Compliment said. “I just wanted to look at different options for blocking and I wanted to try and tighten up some of our rotations. We started with Sophie, Lauren and Madison in the front row and had more defensive players in the back row to get things going.”

The new rotation seemed to work, especially early on as the Lady Cats opened with big leads at the beginning of the first two sets.

They got those leads thanks to their serving as Turner, Lemke and Dunn didn’t make a serving error, while Turner racked up 16 service points and Lemke added 10. Turner and Dixon added three aces in the win.

Libero Makenzie Kallevig passes the ball off to a teammate Tuesday against Spring Hill.

“Megan has been pretty consistent all year long,” Compliment said. “She doesn’t necessarily have the most aces, but she is the most consistent and her serves are always the ones that get teams out of their offense. She did a really nice job as did Madison. I wanted to get Madison going early and get that tempo going and we were able to do that.”

Turner was also active on the front row as she and Stambaugh went on the offensive with 11 kills each. Dixon and Dunn also added seven and six kills, respectively, in the win. McMullen also moved the ball around well with 34 assists

Defensively, Stambaugh and Dixon played well at the net. Stambaugh led Louisburg with seven blocks and Dixon came up with six.

Kallevig led the team with 17 digs out of the back row while Dunn and Dixon added 13 and 12 digs, respectively.

“Our thing was just to push the tempo and play our game and for a majority of the night that is what we did,” Compliment said. “We also tried a new lineup out and I think that really helped out. There were some teaching moments in there too.”

Lady Cats put up a fight against Olathe Northwest

Louisburg went up against the toughest team the Lady Cats will face all season last Thursday when they hosted Olathe Northwest.

Northwest, which is currently the No. 1 team in Class 6A, currently has a record of 25-1 and knocked off nationally-ranked St. James Academy earlier in the season. To make matters worse, Northwest had only lost five sets all season in those 26 matches.

The Lady Cats didn’t back down from the Ravens, in fact, the Lady Cats are responsible from one of those five set defeats.

Although Louisburg fell 25-14, 23-25, 25-17 and 25-22, the Lady Cats showed a lot of fight and it was exactly what their coach was looking for.

“Stealing a set from Olathe Northwest was great to see,” Louisburg coach Jessica Compliment said. “We didn’t play well in that first set, but for them to come back against a great team like that was great to see. They fought hard in the third and fourth sets, but they were able to rally back when they got down and didn’t get frustrated.”

Louisburg got down early in the first set as Northwest jumped out to an 18-6 lead. The Lady Cats made a mini-run as they got three blocks from Madison Turner and an ace from Anna Dixon to cut the lead to 18-11, but it was as close as they would get.

The second set was completely different.

The Lady Cats got out to a 10-7 lead after back-to-back aces from Megan Lemke and a kill from Lauren Dunn. Northwest battled back to tie the set at 19-all, but Louisburg went on a 4-1 run to take a 23-20 advantage after a kill from Cate Stambaugh and an ace from Makenzie Kallevig. Dixon and Turner followed with kills to secure the set win.

“In that second set, they didn’t come out as intimidated or nervous and that is what happened in that first set,” Compliment said. “They let Northwest’s serving mentally control what they were doing and that second set they came out with more confidence. We got a couple big plays at the beginning, which is always key for us and the girls played with a higher energy level.”

Setter Sophie McMullen helped guide the Louisburg offense as she finished with 19 assists and also led the team with three aces, along with Lemke. Dixon and Kallevig each added two aces of their own.

Turner was strong at the net with a team-high seven kills and seven blocks, while Dunn was next with six kills. Defensively, Kallevig and Lemke finished with 14 and 11 digs, respectively, out of the back row.