Lady Cats come up short to Olathe North on Senior Night

Louisburg senior Riley Kallevig sends a shot over the net Thursday during the Lady Cats’ match with Olathe North on Senior Night.

On what was supposed to be a night of celebrating the work of six Louisburg seniors, Thursday’s match against Olathe North ended on a sour note.

The Lady Cats, who were playing their final home match of the season, fell behind early to the Eagles and couldn’t catch up in a 25-18, 25-22, 17-25 and 25-23 loss during Senior Night at Louisburg High School.

Before the match, the Lady Cats honored seniors Haley Cain, Liz Jacobs, Riley Kallevig, Sydni Keagle, Erin Lemke and Reilly Ratliff-Becher. Many of those seniors played big roles in the Lady Cats’ run to back-to-back state championship appearances.

“These six seniors are a special group,” Louisburg coach Jessica Compliment said. “It’s been fun to watch them grow and develop over the years. A good portion of them have been on varsity since they were freshmen or sophomores, so they’ve been key players in our recent success.

“They’ve put in a lot of work over the years, and they aren’t done yet this year. Hopefully, they’ll have an opportunity to play at state again this season. This is a special group of seniors who get along really well. They are a fun bunch to coach.”

Olathe North jumped on the Lady Cats early on in the first set as the Eagles opened the match on a 14-4 run. Louisburg tried to claw back, and cut the Eagle lead to 18-14 at one point, but couldn’t get any closer.

In the second set, the Lady Cats traded leads with the Eagles, but back-to-back kills from Jacobs gave Louisburg a 19-17 advantage late. Olathe North responded with a 6-1 run to help win the set and take a 2-0 lead.

Louisburg responded nicely in the third set as it went on a 6-0 run of its own behind the serving from sophomore Davis Guetterman to put the Lady Cats up 17-8 and they didn’t look back. Junior Carleigh Pritchard also recorded a pair of kills and a block during that run.

The Lady Cats didn’t have enough in the fourth set to keep the match alive, but made it interesting. Louisburg’s defense stepped up late won a big point to take a 16-15 lead after a long volley that was kept alive on a big dig from Ratliff-Becher.

Louisburg once against battled back from a three-point deficit to go up 23-22 on an ace from Chase Kallevig, but the Eagles scored the final three points to take the set and the match.

“It was tough to lose on Senior Night,” Compliment said. “You always want to be able to send the seniors off with a final win on their home court. Olathe North was smart and played aggressive the entire evening.”

Cain and Pritchard played big in the middle as the two players led the Lady Cats with 12 kills each. Jacobs also finished with nine on the outside and sophomore Rinny McMullen had six from the setter’s spot.

Louisburg also served well at times as it had nine aces, including five from Guetterman, who served 13 points. McMullen led the Lady Cat offense with 21 assists and Guetterman added 12.

Defensively, Riley Kallevig led the team in digs with 15, while Ratliff-Becher finished with 12 and Chase Kallevig added 10. Lemke finished with a team-high three blocks along with Pritchard.

The Lady Cats will try and bounce back tonight when it travels to Piper for their final regular season match of the season.

Louisburg goes winless at Emporia

Louisburg traveled to the Emporia Invitational on Saturday, and like much of its season, the Lady Cats went up against bigger programs, some of which were state-ranked.

It was a tough outing for the Lady Cats as they lost all four of their matches.

Louisburg lost to Bishop Carroll (25-17, 25-21), Shawnee Heights (25-20, 20-25, 25-17), Bonner Springs (25-23, 25-17) and Lawrence (25-22, 21-25 and 25-14).

“Saturday was a rough and tough day,” Compliment said. “Yes, we did see some tough competition, but we had moments where we could have pulled away with a win or at least played closer with a few of the teams. We made quite a few service errors which cost us a lot of points throughout the day. This tournament is similar to the Lansing tournament as far as level of play and teams. We were lacking intensity throughout the day, and other teams showed a lot more emotion and drive.

“There were moments though where I thought we were turning around and fighting back to win, but unfortunately we came up short each time.  We had some great defensive plays throughout the day, and our serve receive was pretty consistent as well.”

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