Lady Raiders go .500 at Twin City Tournament

The Sidney High volleyball team finished 7th among 10 teams over the weekend at the Twin City Tournament in Scottsbluff, stringing together a 3-3 record. The Lady Raiders are now 7-13 on the season.

Competing in the event, which used a pool-play format, were: Sidney, Scottsbluff, Alliance, Lexington, Ogallala, Gering, Northwest-Grand Island, Chadron, McCook and RC Stevens (Rapid City, S.D.).

Ogallala won all six of its matches to claim the overall title, topping RC Stevens in the championship match 25-18, 25-18.

On Friday, Sidney was swept by Gering by scores of 25-23 and 25-15. The Lady Raiders then bounced back and avenged their home loss to Chadron two weeks ago, with a 2-1 victory over the 16-3 Cardinals, winning 15-25, 25-18 and 26-24. In their final contest of the night, Northwest-Grand Island swept the Lady Raiders, 25-15 and 25-9.

Sidney rebounded Saturday morning by sweeping McCook, 25-10 and 25-14. In consolation bracket play, the Lady Raiders were swept by Alliance, 25-18 and 25-15, but came back to edge Scottsbluff, 25-23 and 26-24, in the 7th-place match.

Senior middle blocker Savanna Rosenbaum had a great weekend for the Lady Raiders. Over the six matches, she totaled 31 kills – 12 against Chadron – and 17 blocks. Sophomore outside hitter Maddi Porter also played well, accumulating 30 kills and 68 digs. Junior setter Emily Mahr had 60 assists in the tournament.

Sidney head coach Sarah Wilson took several positives out of the weekend.

“Overall this was a good weekend for the volleyball team,” Wilson said. “We turned a big corner. We still had a couple ‘disappointments’ — we definitely beat ourselves in the matches against Gering and Alliance. But the good news from that, I guess, is that we showed we can still compete with any of the teams in the district, which we will have ample opportunity to do.

“After our frustrating match on Tuesday at home against Scottsbluff, we adjusted our lineup some and I think we have found a rotation that maximizes the players’ strengths and our best shot at success,” Wilson added.

Wilson says she and even some of the officials were impressed with the way the Lady Raiders handled the overnight break and came out strong Saturday morning.

“The ladies did a beautiful job of getting prepared for their first match against McCook on Saturday morning, and they executed quite well in those games. The refs even commented to me that they were impressed with the level of play Sidney brought to a morning match, which is often quite flat.”

The Lady Raiders will take the floor again on Saturday when it competes in a tournament in Gering. Game times will be announced later this week.