By Araya Gomez
On August 30, the Silver Lake Mustangs volleyball team competed in its first tournament of the season in Axtell. The tournament featured a different style than usual, with two pools of three teams. The Mustangs had the Ansley-Litchfield Spartans and the Dundy County- Stratton Tigers on their side of the bracket, two teams that competed in a District Final game last season. In the first set of the day against the Spartans, the Mustangs came out scrappy and challenged the Spartans, but ultimately lost the set 25-21. Head Coach Shelby Rupprecht stated, “I thought we started our morning well in the first set against Ansley-Litchfield. The second set was a bit of a struggle for us as we lost a lot of our energy.” Silver Lake struggled to get anything going offensively and ended up falling to the Spartans, who ultimately won the tournament, 25-11 in the second set. The Mustangs ran a pretty balanced offense; sophomore Libby Soucek led the charge with 4 kills. Senior MaKenna Karr and sophomore Brooklyn Himmelberg added 3 of their own. The Spartans put up a strong block and showcased scrappy defenders, so finding the floor was a challenge. On the Mustangs’ side, senior Sophie Schmidt held down the back row, picking up 30 digs. Karr had 12 of her own, and Soucek added 10.
Although they lost their first game, they kept their spirits strong and continued to the next game against the Tigers. The Mustangs were strong in serve receive, not allowing any ace serves for the Tigers. Schmidt led the team with 26 service receptions with no errors. Thanks to the great serve receive, setters Soucek and senior Kerra Hofstetter were able to move the ball around offensively. Soucek had 8 assists for the match, finding Karr and Himmelberg, who each contributed 4 kills. Silver Lake fell in two sets to the Tigers (25-15 and 25-23).
Following the two losses, the team needed to bounce back to compete against Ainsworth for the final game of the match. Rupprecht stated, “I think the biggest challenge we had was finding a way to go out and compete again after two consecutive losses. But the girls bounced back, and I’m super proud of them for working hard. They are very scrappy, and they hustle after every ball!” After falling in the first set 25-21, the Mustangs dominated the rest of the match. They won the second set 25-10 and the third set 25-16 to claim 5th place in the tournament. The Mustangs controlled the net for the match, tallying 30 kills to the Bulldogs’ 8. The charge was led by seniors Karr and Karah Bartels, who totalled 8 and 6 kills, respectively. Some of the Mustangs’ success came from getting the Bulldogs out of system, especially in serve receive. The team combined for 12 aces; Schmidt contributed 6 and Soucek added 4 of her own. Once again, the Mustangs’ scrappy play enabled them to compete well. Schmidt had another 30 dig game, with Karr and Soucek adding 17 and 14, respectively. Hofstetter led the team in assists with 12.