Lady Bulldogs break in refurbished gym

There was a rededication ceremony at Sundance High School as the Sundance volleyball team held the first home games in the newly refurbished gymnasium. Before the game, principal Jim O'Connor held a ribbon cutting and thanked the maintenance crew for all their hard work re-doing the gym floor and installing the new bleachers.

Shortly thereafter, the Lady Bulldogs took to the floor in their home-opener against the Upton Bobcats. It was a tight matchup between the Bulldogs and the Bobcats, going down to the wire in five games.

Game one brought out the heavy hitters, on both sides. Bulldogs Jaylin Mills and Hailey Karol helped to set the tempo for the night, throwing down 16 and 13 kills respectively. Despite the back and forth, Upton took the first set, 25-19.

Warmed up and ready, the Bulldogs took the court in game two and didn't look back. Behind the serving of Lexie Marchant, Annika Haugen, Jaylin Mills and Hailey Karol, Sundance took a quick 25-10 victory over the Bobcats.

The Bobcats shifted their focus to defense in game three, as Sophie Louderback and Bella Keller stepped up to the net, getting some big blocks against the Bulldog heavy hitters, Mills and Karol. With the teams trading point for point, the game went past 25 and the Bobcats took a 26-24 victory. 

With the Bobcats up, two games to one, the Bulldogs needed to rethink their strategy going into game four.

"Getting around the big blockers of Upton was just a matter of reminding the girls to be intentional when approaching the net," head coach Chelsey Blasczyk stated. This is just what the Lady Bulldogs did, taking a 25-21 win.

Tied at two games apiece, the teams headed into the fifth where it would be the first team to 15.

"This could have gone either way in the end," Blasczyk stated, "We had so much fun playing Upton. The girls worked hard and walking out of the gym didn't feel like a loss because we left it all on the floor."

In the end, the Upton Bobcats took the final match, 15-8 and the overall victory for the night. 

Saturday afternoon the Bulldogs had their first conference matchup as the Wright Panthers came to town. The Sundance team started strong, taking the first match 25-18, but unforced errors and mental mistakes sent the Lady Bulldogs into a downward spiral.

"We didn't come out ready to compete against Wright. With far too many unforced errors we dug ourselves some mental and literal holes that were hard to climb out of," coach Blasczyk stated.

The Lady Bulldogs fell to the Panthers in sets two, three and four, giving the Wright Panthers the conference win. The Lady Bulldogs hope to right their ship heading into homecoming week this week.

"Homecoming is going to be challenging," Blasczyk stated. "We will need to be focused from start to finish to be successful against Tongue River. They have a lot of big hitters this year so we need to work on getting our front line connecting with the setters and attacking aggressively."

For homecoming week, the Sundance volleyball team will first travel to face the Hulett Red Devils on Tuesday and then host the Tongue River Eagles, Friday, for their homecoming game. The first serve will go up at 1 p.m. with the JV and the varsity will follow at 2 p.m. 

Stats

SHS vs Upton: 19-25, 25-10, 24-26, 25-21, 8-15

Lexie Marchant: 10 kills, 4 blocks, 20 digs, 1 ace

Karly Marchant: 15 digs

Annika Haugen: 3 kills, 15 digs, 4 aces

Aspen Jones: 7 kills, 24 digs

Blakely Gill: 23 digs, 2 aces

Hailey Karol: 13 kills, 1 block, 7 digs

Jaylin Mills: 16 kills, 23 digs, 3 aces, 19 assists

SHS vs. Wright: 25-18, 23-25, 6-25, 22-25

Haugen: 13 assists, 2 aces, 12 digs

K.Marchant: 12 digs

Mills: 11 kills, 15 assists, 1 block, 1 ace, 18 digs

Gill: 25 digs

Karol: 7 kills, 3 blocks, 3 digs

L.Marchant: 4 kills, 2 blocks, 2 aces, 21 digs

Jones: 8 kills, 2 aces, 11 digs