By Justin Sharp
With a successful regular season coming to a close, the Silver Lake Lady Mustangs were looking to continue their success into the postseason. On Tuesday, October 27th, the Mustangs headed into their first matchup against the Giltner Hornets. In a matchup that included two teams with similar playing styles, the Lady Mustangs knew it was going to be a heavyweight bout.
The Mustangs started off to a slow start, losing the first set 22-25, but found their rhythm in the next three sets, winning 27-25, 25-23, and 22-11. With the first set not going the Mustangs’ way basically the whole year, they fueled back with aggressive offense and some great defense to win the game and advance to the Sub-District Championship. The offense for the Lady Mustangs shone, out-killing the Hornets 47-37. Senior MaKenna Karr led the way with 23 kills, supplying the power for this Mustangs’ offense. Anchoring the back row was senior Sophie Schmidt, who had 56 digs and 29 serve receptions. Schmidt etched herself in Mustang history, racking up 2,000 career digs and 2,000 career serve receptions in the match, and also became the D2 state leader in career digs, an unbelievable feat. With Schmidt’s heroics and Karr’s power, the Lady Mustangs were able to win this one and advance to the Sub-District Championship against Red Cloud the next night.
On Wednesday, October 28th, the Silver Lake Mustangs, coming off an exciting opening match against the Giltner Hornets, were determined to win and advance to the District Finals. Going up against a very powerful and young Red Cloud team, they knew it was going to be a tough battle. A slow start once again would prove to be the killer in this one. The Mustangs lost set one 14-25, and the story would be the same in the next 2. MaKenna Karr led the way once again for Silver Lake with 17 kills. In an emotional championship loss, the Silver Lake Lady Mustangs would await the District Finals brackets and a wild card to continue their season.