Sidney volleyball swept by Gering, sweeps Kimball

The Sidney High volleyball team started out slow, but finished strong in its second home triangular of the season Thursday night at Cabela’s Athletic Facility.

The Lady Raiders (4-6) were swept by Gering, 25-15 and 25-12, but bounced back to earn a sweep over Kimball, 25-23 and 25-20, in the nightcap.

The Lady Raiders opened the first set against Gering (8-7) with a 5-3 lead. But Gering found a rhythm and took off on a 6-0 run that was mainly built upon unforced Sidney errors.

The Bulldogs took the lead 6-5 in the middle of its run and never relinquished the lead again. Gering, who made a fair amount of mistakes early on, started to limit them as the set progressed and also ramped things up defensively

Sidney had a hard time putting together attacks and fell 25-15 in the first set.

The second set was more of the same. Gering got out to a 7-3 lead and cranked out an 11-1 run that put the set and match away early.The Lady Raiders really struggled with their serving – usually a point of strength – and the misfires cost them several points. Sidney was able to stop the bleeding momentarily, but in the end dropped the second set 25-12.

Sidney head coach Sarah Wilson acknowledged that neither team was nearly at its best in the first match.

“Against Gering, we made a lot of unforced errors and it really cost us,” Wilson said. “Gering probably wasn’t playing at its highest level. We weren’t attacking strong, we weren’t serving well and we weren’t receiving well. We just weren’t at our highest level and the score reflected that.”

But as it did in its triangular with Chadron and Bridgeport a week ago, the Lady Raiders really benefited from a roughly hour-long break in between their matches. They came back regrouped and focused, and it showed in the first few minutes of their match against Kimball (7-8).

Sidney got off to a much better start – the energy level was far higher and it cut down on mistakes. The Lady Raiders led 12-7 midway through the first set, exchanged points for the rest of the way, but were able to hang on in a tight finish for a 25-23 win.

Kimball opened up a 9-4 lead in the second set and then Sidney shot off a 10-1 run to take the lead at 14-10. Emotions ran high in the building as the Lady Raiders had completely swung momentum and could smell a sweep in the distance.

The Longhorns kept things close, but Sidney buckled down and took the match and the set, 25-20.

“It would have been easy to quit and give up on the night,” Sidney head coach Sarah Wilson said. “They (the Sidney players) never quit. They always come back fighting.”

The Lady Raiders travel to Aurora this weekend for a tournament. Sidney’s first match will be at 11:15 a.m. CDT against host Aurora.