Bison volleyball girls lose twice at Holdrege

HOLDREGE -- McCook High School had a tough night at the Holdrege volleyball triangular meet Thursday, Sept. 9.

The Bison varsity girls lost a 25-14, 25-13 decision to Grand Island Northwest, then McCook lost 25-10, 25-15 to Holdrege.

"We were extremely disappointed in our performance," McCook head coach Kristen Weber said. "We knew going into the matches that we were facing two great opponents, and that we had to bring our 'A game' to compete with them. Our hitters were not successful against Northwest, so we started hanging our heads a little and lost our composure. We came back in the second set and really battled them for the first 13 points, but began making errors and couldn't come out of the slump to finish the match."

Bonnie Dominguez and Kassidy Gillen led McCook with three kills each against Northwest. Brooklynn Trew recorded eight set assists.

In the loss to Holdrege, Coach Weber said her team played tough early in both sets only to "shoot ourselves in the foot again" with unforced errors.

"We are just really inconsistent right now," Weber said. "We don't have that 'go-to' player that has consistently been able to take care of the ball and terminate when given the chance. We are streaky -- we get a couple of players who play well for an entire match, and then the next match, they may struggle and someone else plays well. We have to find a solid group of six who can step on the court and play consistently within themselves."

Rachel Goltl had four kills to lead the Bison against Holdrege. Sydney Clapp added three kills. Riley Allen and Gillen each recorded an ace block.

Coach Weber plans to make practices next week more competitive by putting varsity players against each other across the net, "so that our top kids can put some stress on each other and also bring the others up to the level that we need to practice at," she said.

"Our goal is still to improve each time we step on the court, and we really felt that we did not do that (Thursday night)," Weber said. "We have a tough McCook Invite that we need to focus on next week.

The Bison are idle until the McCook Invitational Saturday, Sept. 18, at the Senior High gym.