Alliance brushes aside Sidney with sweep

The Sidney High volleyball team never found a real spark Thursday, as it was swept, 3-0, by Alliance at the Cabela's Athletic Facility. Sidney lost 25-18, 25-13, 25-19.

With the loss, the Lady Raiders' record fell to 8-18 and 1-5 in Class B District 8 play.

Sidney head coach Sarah Wilson was impressed with Alliance's game against her team.

"Alliance ran a pretty strong offense and were very scrappy defensively," Wilson said. "They sent things at us aggressively which made it tough for us to set up our offense and swing back. In the beginning, we just let them come at us and we didn't come back at them with the same intensity."

The first set was particularly rocky for the Lady Raiders. Alliance jumped out to a 6-0 lead to open the set, with the first four points coming from Sidney unforced errors. Mistakes continued to plague Sidney as they fell behind 15-6. The Lady Raiders hung in and kept the score relatively close, but had dug too deep a hole early on. Alliance played a clean, aggressive set and won easily because of it.

At the start of the second set, Sidney looked better, but fell behind after an Alliance 7-2 run that was fueled by Lady Raider miscues.

Alliance star junior Kennedy Cyza was dominant all around – she crushed the ball on her swings and made a few strong blocks at the net. As a result, the Lady Raiders just couldn't build an attack and dropped the second set, 25-13.

The final set was Sidney's best, as it finally started to cut back on mistakes, and some of its attacks began to find open floor space. Still, Alliance catapulted to a commanding 16-6 lead after an emphatic 9-1 run. A 6-0 run by Sidney brought it back to a four-point deficit. The Lady Raiders mounted another 6-0 run later in the set that cut the Alliance lead to 22-19. But the Bulldogs took the final three points and the match.

Erin Bown led the Lady Raiders with eight kills, nine digs and four assists in the match. Maddi Porter added six kills and eight digs, while Emily Mahr collected 14 assists.

Sidney travels to Alliance on Saturday for the six-team Dig Pink Tournament. The Lady Raiders will square off against Chadron and Scottsbluff in pool play. Other teams participating are Dundy County, Gering and host Alliance. Play begins at 10 a.m.