By Dave Vrbas

The Wauneta Breeze

With Tuesday of this week’s home match against 18-1 Wallace marking the last regular season game for Wauneta-Palisade and sub-districts kicking off on Monday in Chappell, Bronco netters needed a win on Friday to better their overall record.

Taking to the court at Curtis against the 7-12 Medicine Valley Raiders after two postponements due to illness and weather, the Broncos were at a point before the game where a win or loss would have made a huge difference in their season, which stood at 9-9 going in.

Dominating everything but the third set, the Broncos put their season back into ‘winning’ status and got some good court practice before this week’s tests against Wallace and at subs, which are set for Monday.

Tuesday’s game against Wallace, in which the Broncos dropped three straight to take a 10-10, will be reported in next week’s Breeze edition.

Four-setter moves Broncs back up into winning season status

It was clear from the start which team was set to dominate at Medicine Valley, as the Broncos coasted to a 25-10 win in the first set and capped off a 25-12 second set.

Medicine Valley got their system working in the third though, forcing struggles for the Broncos in their passing game. And as is the case with teams who struggle with passing, the rest of the Broncos’ game seemed to lag. The Raiders were able to eke out a 25-22 third-set win, forcing a fourth. In the fourth, the Broncos dominated once again, taking a 25-11 win.

Tori Adams posted her first double-double of the season, coming up with 13 digs and 11 kills. Erring on just four of her swings, the Bronco senior posted a hitting percentage of .241 for the afternoon.

Sheyla Christner was just one solid smack away from landing in the double digits for kills, posting nine and a team-high .444 swinging percentage. Jenae Bischoff, for the second game in a row, proved her effectiveness at the net, smacking home eight kills and a .167 percentage.

Bethany Riener posted four kills, Katie Flaig had three and Dawnta Harchelroad posted a pair of kills for the winning Broncs.

In addition to Adams’ double-digit performance in digs, three others came up with impressive numbers on the floor. Shelby Hamilton, the team’s libero defensive specialist, passed up 24 digs and 24 successful serve receive passes to lead the defense. Riener added 17 and Harchelroad had 12 digs.

Christner and Bischoff landed two ace blocks each during the game and Adams and Harchelroad both added one stuff block apiece.

Riener led the setting effort, tossing up 27 set assists on 96 attempts. Flaig added nine on 28 attempts.

Three Broncos -— Harchelroad, Flaig and Riener — ended the game with a trio of ace serves each. Laura Rundback added two aces and Christner and Hamilton both added one ace to the serving stats.

RPAC recap

With three varsity starters — Flaig, Hamilton and Christner — out of commission due to illness, the Broncos didn’t get quite the rematch Coach Michelle Harchelroad was hoping for against Dundy County-Stratton.

Taking on the Tigers in the first round of the Republican Plains Activities Conference tournament, the Broncos refused to play like they were down, posting impressive tenacity in a 25-23, 25-20, 25-22 defeat.

Jayvee players filled open spots on the court and duked it out against the Tigers, eventually losing the match.

Bischoff led the offense with nine kills on a stellar .421 percentage. Adams added five, Riener three, and Jonee Maris, Harchelroad and Rebecca Strand a kill apiece.

Bischoff’s ten digs and nine kills put her one kill away from her first double-double performance as a Bronco junior. Adams was impressive from the back row, passing up 12 digs and handling 11 service receptions with precision. Riener added 18 digs for the Bronco defense.

Adams also landed three ace serves for the Broncos. Bischoff added two and Riener had one ace.

Harchelroad and Bischoff both posted a pair of stuff blocks each. Maris and Strand added one each.

Riener led the setting effort with 13 assists.

Jayvee tourney and recaps

The Bronco jayvee competed well at the Dundy County-Stratton JV Tournament in Benkelman over the weekend, taking wins over McCook and Chase County.

The Broncs took the McCook 9th Grade team in three sets, 23-25, 25-19, 15-13. In the next game, they lost to DCS in three, 20-25, 25-18, 6-15. They regrouped for the final game to post a two-set victory over Chase County, 25-22, 25-19.

“The girls did a great job,” said Coach Michelle Harchelroad. “There was a great amount of team effort. Each week I am seeing improvement from these young ladies and that is progress.”

At Medicine Valley, the Broncos played just two sets due to the low numbers of girls out for the sport at MV. The Broncos lost the first, 25-21, but took the second, 25-21.

Subs start on Monday

With no official bracket out just yet for next week’s sub-districts, the best anyone can do is to speculate on matchups.

Typically, the two teams with the lowest number of wildcard points play first on Monday night with the winner earning a spot in the tournament — otherwise referred to as a bunny bracket match.

The teams making up the sub-district tourney are 20-1 Hay Springs, 20-6 Leyton, 10-10 Crawford, 10-10 WP (after the loss to Wallace) and 7-14 Creek Valley. Since it’s safe to assume Hay Springs and Leyton will be the top two seeds respectively and Creek Valley will definitely play in the bunny bracket as the bottom seed, the question is whether Crawford or WP will play in that first play-in game on Monday night.

Crawford was playing 1-16 Sioux County and 6-18 Hemingford in a triangular on Tuesday and will play at 17-7 Morrill on Friday. If they can win both triangular games this week, that would put the Broncos in the play-in game against Creek Valley. 

It would also pit Crawford against Leyton that night for sure and the winner of the bunny bracket game would play against top-seeded Hay Springs the same night. Winners will advance to Tuesday night’s games in Chappell, with the winner of Tuesday night’s game advancing on to districts.

The Breeze website, at www.waunetanebraska.com will be updated with a sub-district tournament bracket as soon as it is made available.