Sidney Takes District Title

Sidney's Lady Raider Volleyball team cruised through the regular season with a 30-and-3 record, earning a District Final at home and the number three seed in the Class B rankings. This set up Saturday's matchup against the number 14 seed Beatrice Lady Orange, a team much better than their 15-and-15 record indicated due to strength of schedule. Sidney first year head coach Marcus Ehrke has refined the team, getting the squad to communicated more effectively while working to improve their consistency.

With a packed house sporting all red clothing, the Sidney faithful erupted when junior Logan Holly delivered the first serve of the match, a heater that streaked over the net towards the opposite wall, then suddenly dropped with topspin just inside the line between two shocked Beatrice defenders. Sidney opened a small lead, but the Lady Orange quickly adjusted and battled back to tie. The teams traded points for the whole set, with Beatrice doing a great job of digging out spikes and covering the court.

The teams were tied at 10-to-10 when Beatrice went on a run, scoring five points in a row and prompting a Sidney time out. Marcus regrouped his squad, and the Lady Raiders went to work with Holly coming up with big kills from the left side, and then tying the score at sixteen with a drop shot that sent the Beatrice defender sprawling out of bounds in a failed save attempt. After another Holly kill to up the Sidney lead to 19-to-17, the momentum shift was complete and Sidney slammed the door on the set with a 25-to-20 victory.

Although the Beatrice squad lacked height, their athleticism, strong hitters, and mistake-free style prevented the Lady Raiders from getting any easy points. The second set started with Sidney getting the first two points in convincing fashion, but Beatrice fought back to hang with the Lady Raiders. Sidney then started to get great assists and sets, getting the Lady Raider hitters better kill opportunities and they opened up a 17-to-11 lead. Mattie Johnson drilled a cross court kill from the back corner, and Sidney took the second set 25-to-15.

Sidney again opened a lead in the third set, the Lady Orange battled back, capitalizing on Sidney hitting errors and miscues. Beatrice pulled ahead 9-to-7, but then starting making errors of their own, and Johnson and Holly started the Sidney comeback with big kills to narrow the deficit, but Beatrice kept pace. Senior Nicole Birner put Sidney back on top with an ace serve to put the score at 16-to-15, only to have Beatrice battle back to tie the score at 19. The teams traded scores until Sidney put two scores together and finally put the Lady Orange away in the third set 25-to-23 for the 3-to-0 match victory. Mattie Johnson and Logan Holly led the offense with 15 and 11 kills respectively, while Alecca Campbell put up 3 blocked shots in the victory. Birner and senior Sarah Wamsley had 15 and 14 digs respectively, while Birner led with 22 assists.

After the match Ehrke said, "I think we were a little bit nervous in the first set and it showed in our play. Beatrice kept taking advantage of us not playing up to our potential on defense. But after that timeout in the first set, the girls relaxed and stated to play more feely and confidently. The crowd was a huge boost to our energy and confidence the whole way."

Ehrke commented on the the State Tournament, saying, "Heading to Lincoln, we are extremely proud of our accomplishments thus far, but definitely hungry for more. We don't want to just make it to Lincoln, we are wanting to make some noise. The biggest reason for our success up to this point is the girls' ability to play as a team, trust each other, and know that every point matters, playing with energy and effort at all times."

Sidney earned the third seed in Class B, and is scheduled to face number 6 seed Duchesne on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln. Duchesne enters the tournament with a 21-and-17 record.