Lady Cats stay perfect in league with win over Tonganoxie

Louisburg freshman setter Rinny McMullen prepares to dump the ball over the Tonganoxie front row Thursday during the Lady Cats’ home match. The Lady Cats defeated Tonganoxie, 3-0, to move to 6-0 in the Frontier League.

In the middle of its Frontier League dual with Tonganoxie on Thursday, the Louisburg volleyball team found itself comfortably ahead.

The Lady Cats were never in danger of losing their first league match, but still, they weren’t satisfied with how they were playing.

“They are just a fun group and they enjoy playing together so much and I think that shows for the most part,” Louisburg coach Jessica Compliment said. “When I asked them in the huddle what the problem was in the first set, they were the ones who were saying what they were doing wrong and that is good to hear them acknowledge that. They weren’t communicating as well and the energy level wasn’t where it needed to be, but they were able to fix that, especially in that third set.

After Louisburg won the first two sets 25-18 and 25-15, the Lady Cats finished the dual with a 25-10 victory in the third set to sweep the Chieftains at home.

Louisburg improved its Frontier League record to 6-0 on the season and 19-5 overall. With two more league matches to go, the Lady Cats have an eye on their first league title since 2015.

“We haven’t won the last two years, thanks to De Soto, and I think that winning league is important to the girls,” Compliment said. “They want to bring back that tradition of winning league after winning it in 2013, 2014 and 2015, and they want to set that standard and expectation again.”

The win over Tonganoxie gives Louisburg its 12^th consecutive victory on the season and the Lady Cats have solidified their No. 2 state ranking in Class 4A.

The Chieftains had a tough time containing the Lady Cat offensive attack at the net as they tallied 46 kills on the night, with 25 of those coming on swings from senior Anna Dixon. Junior middle blocker Haley Cain was second on the team with seven kills.

Senior Anna Dixon gets ready to tip the ball over the net Thursday against Tonganoxie.

Louisburg also served strong as it recorded 12 aces, including three each from junior Riley Kallevig, and freshmen Rinny McMullen and Davis Guetterman. Dixon also added two aces to her line.

Defensively, Cain was active for the Lady Cats as she led the team with nine digs and Dixon finished with eight. Junior libero Reilly Ratliff-Becher, Kallevig and McMullen each had seven.

McMullen and Guetterman each ran the offense well as McMullen notched 20 assists and Guetterman added 17.

“We played ok,” Compliment said. “I thought there were times where we just sat back and got a little comfortable, rather than playing our game. In that third set, we decided to play a little more of our pace and do more things. We were making quite a few errors that we shouldn’t make in the first set and I don’t think that our energy level was there. Even the girls acknowledged it in the huddle, so it was good to see us finish strong.”

The Wildcats will see their competition ramp up on Saturday when they travel to the Ottawa Invitational. Louisburg will match up against state-ranked Bishop Miege in the round-robin tournament that also features Ottawa, Basehor-Linwood, Olathe West and Highland Park.

“It will be a tough tournament with some good challenges for us,” Compliment said. “Seeing Olathe West again will be good after playing them close two times earlier this year, and then playing Bishop Miege is always an exciting opportunity. We don’t know what is going to happen with sub-state or state yet, but to be able to play teams like them during the season is always a plus and it kind of tells us where we are at.”

Louisburg picks up win on the road at Baldwin

The Louisburg volleyball team got its busy week started on the right foot Tuesday when it traveled to Baldwin and picked up a 25-11, 25-12 and 25-15 win over the Bulldogs.

The Lady Cats were strong defensively as they had one of the better performances of the season at the net. Junior middle blocker Haley Cain led Louisburg with four blocks and junior Erin Lemke finished with two.

Junior Riley Kallevig also played well defensively in the back with a team-high 13 digs, while freshman Rinny McMullen and senior Anna Dixon each finished with five.

Louisburg senior Carson Buffington follows through for a kill Tuesday against Baldwin.

“Our serve receive the last week-and-a-half has been a lot better and more consistent,” Louisburg coach Jessica Compliment said. “Reilly (Ratliff-Becher) and Anna have really stepped up in practice and have been working on that. We served more aggressive as well and did some good things there.

“Blocking-wise, they are getting more comfortable with each other, side-by-side, and reading and being patient. We are just trying to get them all on the same page. It is coming along, but we still have a lot of work to do in that area.”

Offensively, Dixon had another strong game with a team-high 18 kills, Cain finished with seven and Kallevig added four in the win. Kallevig also had a big night from behind the service line as she tallied four aces and Ratliff-Becher added two of her own.

McMullen and fellow freshman Davis Guetterman, ran the offense well as they recorded 17 and 15 assists, respectively.

“They played loose and had fun out there,” Compliment said. “We tried a couple different things with our offense. Carson (Buffington) ran a couple quicks on the inside and ran a couple more slides. We are just trying to work with our hitters on trying different things and spreading the offense around. Carleigh (Pritchard) and Haley had some good hits from time to time as well and I think the blocking stepped up a little bit.”

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