Bobcats prevail over Dogies

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
Friday night, fans were treated to the first Weston County Civil War in volleyball as the Lady Bobcats of Upton came to town to face off against the Lady Dogies in both team’s season opener.
Newcastle won the first battle by defeating Upton in the JV contest in two straight sets, but the Lady Bobcats rallied to win the war by sweeping the Lady Dogies in three in the varsity matchup.
“I felt like the varsity had everything in place, but we just couldn’t get our serves and our hits to hit home which is just giving them free points,” head coach Keeley Anderson admitted. “Our coverage and our passing was right where it should be and it looked awesome, so I’m going to chalk up those unforced errors to first game jitters. Thankfully, we were able to get those out against a non-conference opponent.”
Upton got off to a quick start in the first set jumping out to a 9-2 lead before Anderson’s team rallied to get themselves back into it. However, the Lady Bobcats ended the contest with the momentum and took a one set lead defeating the Lady Dogies 25-18.
Round two of the match saw a much closer contest with the teams trading the lead and battling to obtain the upper hand. This set came right down to the wire, ending with Upton squeaking out a 25-23 victory. 
“In the second set, we gave up 16 points alone in missed serves and missed hits and we lost that set by two,” Anderson frowned. “We just had too many unforced errors, and when you’re giving them free points over and over, they’re going to win.”
The third set was do or die for the Lady Dogies, and though once again, the two squads battled, Upton finished the set and match with a 25-18 victory.
Despite their opening contest not turning out as Anderson had hoped, there were some definite positives for the team to take away. First, according to the coach, the back row performed quite well with passers communicating and moving well. And while serving and hitting performances were not what she expected, she stressed that those are two areas of the game the squad could fix.
Anderson also recognized some players as having a particularly good night on the court. 
“Having 6-foot, 1-inch sophomore Tiernan Stanton at the net is a welcome addition. She’s a beast and it’s really fun, because we put her and Jaylen [Ostenson] against each other in practice and it’s just healthy competition,” Anderson smiled. “For one so young, Tiernan also sees the court extremely well, she finds the holes in coverage and is adept at placing the ball right where it needs to go.”
Ostenson had a good night at the serving line, knocking down three aces in a row in the second set, while senior Caitlyn Pehringer looked very strong on the right side of the net. 
“I told Caitlyn that she’s our secret weapon because most people don’t hit like that from the right side,” Anderson nodded. “She is also a strong blocker and we need that against the other team’s outside hitter, and being powerful on
the right side is often something teams don’t have. It’s exciting that isn’t the case for us.”
In the back row, Anderson was pleased with the performances of LaKacee Lipp and Alaina Steveson.
The team will be working this week to clean up their serving and hitting and will be back at it on Friday with a contest in Burns beginning with the “C” team match at 2 followed by JV and varsity. On Saturday, the JV and varsity host the Wright Lady Panthers with JV beginning at 11 followed by the varsity contest.