The Wakefield Lady Trojans jumped into 2021 with a sweep over Lewis & Clark Conference member Plainview on the road on August 26 in Plainview.
Jumped may have well said swept as the Lady Trojans opened the season with a 25-18, 25-20 and 25-23 win over the Lady Pirates in a best-of-five sets match.
"We played pretty well for a first match," Wakefield coach Brittan Eisenmann said. "We are going to get ready for a tough stretch of competition, we'll build on the experience and see where we are at the end of the weekend."
The weekend is the Northeast Nebraska Classic at Wisner-Pilger High School and Pender High School.
Against Plainview, Alex Arenas paced the Wakefield offense with eight kills, while Daveigh Munter-McAfee added six.
Ali Brown and Destiny Helzer had five, Mikenzie Arenas four and Makenna Decker one.
Alex Arenas had three ace serves and six Lady Trojans had set assists led by Olivia Donner with nine.
"We have versatile players who can play all over the court," Eisenmann said. "If you need to make the set, make the set - and all of our players can do that."
Jordan Metzler had seven set assists followed by Mikenzie Arenas with a couple, Aishah Valenzuela, Brown, and Katie Borg with one each.
Defensively, Valenzuela led the way with 19 digs and was 23 for 25 in receiving serves.
Meaning out of 25 serves in what turned out to be a three-set match, she made useable passes to set up the Wakefield attack on the other side of the court.
Alex Arenas contributed 13 digs, Donner had five, Decker and Borg had a pair each Mikenzie Arenas had one.
"It was a good start, but we must get better as we move along in the season," Eisenmann said.
The Lady Trojans will head to the Classic along with Fremont Archbishop Bergan, Bancroft-Rosalie-Lyons-Decatur Northeast, West Point Guardian Angels Central Catholic, Oakland-Craig, Pender, Tekamah-Herman and Wakefield.
"This will be a good test," Eisenmann said. "We will play some great teams and know a lot about who we are and where we need to go."
WAKEFIELD DEFEATED PLAINVIEW 25-18, 25-20, 25-23
WAKEFIELD (1-0): Alex Arenas 8k, 3a, 13d; MaKenna Decker 1k, 2s, 2d; Mikenzie Arenas 4k, 2s, 1d; Ali Brown 5k, 1b, 1s, 2d; Jordan Metzler 7s, 8d; Daveigh Munter-McAfee 6k, 4d; Destiny Helzer 5k, 5d; Olivia Donner 9s, 5d; Aishah Valenzuela 1s, 19d; Katie Borg 1s, 2d.
More pictures from the Lady Trojans sweep of Plainview can be found at the Republicans Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/wakef...