Lady Cats Lose In First Round Of State Tournament

The Axtell Lady Cats volleyball season came to an end in the first round of the 2010 Class D-1 Volleyball Championships held in Grand Island on Thursday.
Axtell came into state with a record of 27-2 and was seeded fourth and took on fifth-seeded West Point Central Catholic (26-8) at Grand Island Northwest High School in the opening round.
West Point CC had too much for the Lady Cats in the contest eliminating Axtell in four hard-fought sets by scores of 25-23, 23-25, 19-25 and 21-25.
Axtell ends its season with a record of 27-3 while WPCC advanced to the semifinals to meet top-seeded Exeter-Milligan on Friday.
Axtell got off to a shaky start in the first set trailing early 3-1 before regrouping and getting rid of the nervous jitters and took the lead 5-4 behind kills by Mariah Popple, Shala Nelson and Lexi Klauz-Rohde.
West Point built its lead back to 11-8 before the Cats rallied with two service winners from Hailey Kring an ace block by Shaila Fox to tie the score at 11-11.
Kring continued to serve well as Axtell pulled ahead 14-11 with three more service points by Kring and aided by kills from Nelson and Popple. Axtell increased its lead to 17-12 with an ace block and kill by Klauz-Rohde and a pair of service points by Popple.
The Bluejays charged back taking the lead 23-22 scoring 11 of the next 15 points. Gabby Knoble’s kill tied the game at 23-23 and Axtell regained the lead 24-23 with a service winner by Popple. Axtell won the first set 25-23 on a WPCC miss-hit.

For complete story and photo recap see The Courier