Wakefield had been playing some great volleyball the past couple of weeks, in fact it had won seven of its last eight games before dropping what could arguably be construed as one of its most important games of the season.
Although being swept by Crofton in the C2-5 Sub-District final, the Lady Trojans left little to hang their collective heads about as they fell to the Lady Warriors 25-21, 25-23 and 25-19 in the best of five-sets match for the right to move on to a Saturday District final.
The District final would be a ticket for the state tournament in Lincoln early in November.
"These girls put in a tremendous amount of effort this season and literally switch on where we were last year and where we are this year," Wakefield coach Brittany Eisenmann said. We couldn't have asked for a better group of girls to start leading our team in the right direction."
The Lady Trojans just couldn't quite respond in the second set which saw them battle back and get to within two points only to fall 25-23 after dropping the opening race to 25 25-21.
"The girls went out and fought tonight and that's all we ask them to do," Eisenmann said. "Although we didn't get the outcome we had planned, we know this is just the beginning for our program."
Alex Arenas paced the offensive attack with 11 winners on the night, Daveigh Munter-McAfee added nine.
Olivia Donner, Arenas and Alli Brown each had a couple of ace serves and Aishah Valenzuela added to her dig total with 19.
Arenas completed a double-double with 18.
Jordan Metzler had 17 set-assists while Donner finished with six.
"We are so proud of our girls and their efforts throughout the season," Eisenmann said.
CROFTON defeats WAKEFIELD 25-21, 25-23, 25-19.
WAKEFIELD (20-13): Olivia Donner 2a, 4d, ; Aishah Valenzuela 19d; Katie Borg 1a,14d; Alex Arenas 11k, 2a,18d; Makenna Decker 4k, 2b, 4d, 1s; Alli Brown 1k, 2a,3d; Jordan Metzler 1k, 1a, 7d, 17s; Daveigh Munter-McAfee 9k, 3d; Destiny Helzer 2d.
More pictures from the game versus Ponca can be found on the Republicans Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/wakef...