The Wakefield Lady Trojans volleyball squad competed in the Jean Groth Northeast Nebraska Volleyball tournament on Thursday, Sept. 5 and Saturday, Sept. 7 in Wisner and Pender.
On Thursday, Sept. 5 the Trojans took on Wisner-Pilger and Bancroft-Rosalie in two games to determine which division of the Jean Groth tournament they would play in.
After going 0-2 in those contests, the Lady Trojans were sent to the Bronze bracket, where they found some success.
In their most recent contest, Wakeifeld took on Tekamah-Herman on Saturday, Sept. 7 for the Bronze bracket championship.
Against the Tigers of T-H, the Trojans simply just didn’t show up to play for the first set of the match. Seeing as it was the third game of the day, Wakefield was fatigued, and the Tigers took advantage of that to cruise to a 25-13 victory.
After losing set one, the Trojans responded well in set number two. In a back-and-forth match, it looked like Wakefield was going to force a set three, but T-H managed to close the doors on a comeback at the last second to secure a 27-25 victory, which earned the Tigers a sweep in the final game of the Bronze bracket.
With this loss, Wakefield finished tournament play 2-1 to be crowned runner-up of the Bronze Bracket.
Prior to their first loss of the tournament to T-H, the Lady Trojans took on Lutheran-High Northeast in a matchup that looked like it was going to result in a LHNE victory.
Similar to their contest against T-H, Wakefield had troubles in the first set. LHNE seemed like they could do no wrong, and the Trojans quickly found themselves without a chance at winning the set.
After the Eagles of LHNE finished the job 25-11 in the first set, Wakefield woke up.
In the second set, both teams battled back-and-forth before the Lady Trojans finally widened the gap and secured a 25-21 victory to force a set three.
The third set was reminiscent of the first set, although this time the Trojans found themselves on top. Wakeifeld did no wrong in set number three and used their freshly-gained momentum to cruise to a 25-16 victory and remain undefeated in Bronze bracket tournament play.
Before the Trojans secured an incredible victory over LHNE, Wakefield actually entered the tournament winless on the season, and was set to play the Pender Pendragons in game number one.
As they had in their games against LHNE and T-H, the Trojans started off slightly slow against the Pendragons. While the Lady Trojans kept set one close, the Pendragons managed to pull away from Wakefield in the end and secure a victory to go up one set to zero.
It looked like Wakefield’s season record was going to move to 0-5, but the Trojans had other plans.
In set number two, both teams battled hard and long, as both teams refused to give up.
Eventually, Pender had a 23-20 lead, and it looked like all was said and done for the Trojans, but one rally got them right back into the contest, and in the blink of an eye it was all tied up at 25-25.
Finally, the Trojans were able to take a 29-28 lead, Ashlyn Riewer got her serve to drop for an ace to give Wakefield the 30-28 set victory and send the game to set number three.
In set three, the Trojans used all the momentum they’d built from set two to put away the Pendragons. After taking a commanding 24-14 lead, Sierra Kaufman put the nail in the coffin with a kill. This gave Wakefield its first win of the season.
The senior Alli Brown was a huge contributor to Wakefield’s first victory of the season as she finished the game with 13 kills, eight digs, and 15 serves received.
Prior to the actual Jean Groth tournament, the Trojans played in Wisner on Thursday, Sept. 5 in a triangular to see which bracket they’d be competing in on Saturday.
In their final game of Thursday, the Trojans took on the Bancroft-Rosalie Panthers. Going into the contest, the Trojans were still seeking out their first victory of the season. Unfortunately, the Panthers had other plans.
In the first set, the Trojans battled hard, but it just wasn’t enough. Bancroft-Rosalie did a nice job of fighting back everything the Trojans were throwing their way and when the final point was scored it was a 27-25 victory for the Panthers.
Unfortunately for the Trojans the second set wasn’t as close as the first. The momentum built for the Panthers from winning a close first set proved to be too much to handle as Bancroft-Rosalie cruised to a 25-18 set two victory to earn the sweep.
Finally, in their first game of the week, the Trojans played against the Wisner-Pilger Gators on Thursday, Sept. 5.
Once again, the first set was close for the Trojans, but Wisner-Pilger managed to claw away at the last second to secure a 25-21 victory.
Very similar to their game against Bancroft-Rosalie, the Trojans just couldn’t keep up with the Gators after set number one. The Gators’ momentum continued into the second set as they cruised to a 25-15 victory over the Trojans and earned the sweep.
The Trojans going 0-2 on Thursday, Sept. 5 set them up to compete in the Bronze bracket of the tournament on Saturday, Sept. 7.
After a long two days of competition and five games, the Trojans now sit with a record of 2-5 in the regular season.
Despite playing five games over a span of three days, the Trojans won’t get a ton of rest before they get back out onto the court.
The Lady Trojans will continue their regular season on Tuesday, Sept. 10 against Madison in Wakefield. Following their contest against Madison, the Trojans will host a triangular on Thursday, Sept. 12 against Tekamah-Herman and Laurel-Concord-Coleridge.