VOLLEYBALL: Friday, Sept. 18, 2020
Garden City High School’s girls volleyball went 2-1 on Thursday at the Ulysses Quadrangular, beating non-league opponents Pratt and Ulysses, but coming up short in a 3-set heartbreaker loss to Western Athletic Conference foe Hays High.
The Lady Buffs, seeing their record now at 5-6, defeated Pratt 25-21, 25-21 and then toppled host Ulysses 25-18, 25-22. In their final match of the night, the Lady Buffs opened the first set against Hays with a 25-14 win only to see the Lady Indians rally with set wins of 20-25 and 28-30 to drop the Buffs.
That loss ended a 34-match winning streak against WAC opponents, dating back to Oct. 15, 2016 when they lost to Liberal. It also snapped a nearly five-year streak of wins against Hays, dating back to 2015 in the third match of that season.
“Overall, I thought we played flat tonight,” head coach Trista Bailey said after the matches. “It took us some time to find out rhythm in each of the matches we played.”
Bailey said the Lady Buffs struggled with consistency to put balls away on the offensive side and had too many unforced errors.
“Our defensive effort was led by Abby Parr as she is really starting to figure out her role as the libero,” Bailey said of the senior. “She made some big plays for us down the stretch.”
Against Pratt, Julie Calzonetti had 7 kills and 9 digs, McKenna Jagels had 5 kills and 8 digs, Parr had 10 digs, Melody Flores 13 digs and Mya Cruz led with 14 assists.
In the Ulysses match, Parr recorded 19 digs, Flores had 5 kills, Mya Cruz had 8 assissts while Mya DelaCruz had 9 assists and 7 digs.
Against Hays, Parr had 14 digs, Calzonetti 17 digs, Jagels 6 kills and 9 digs, Mya Cruz 8 assists and 10 digs and DelaCruz 11 assists.
“We battled inconsistency all night, but there were some really great moments and glimpses of the potential this team has,” Bailey said.
The Buffs have a quick turnaround as they travel to Maize on Saturday for the Maize Tournament which begins with first-serve at 9 a.m.
Garden City High School 