Kimball wraps up volleyball season in Valentine

The Kimball Lady Longhorns made it to the second round of sub-district play this year. I feat they had not accomplished in over a decade.

The #4 seed in the C2-10 bracket, the lady longhorns faced the #5 seed Gordon-Rushville Lady Mustangs on Monday night in Hemingford. Freshman Paige Frederick got a start in the game after coming on strong late in the season. Fellow freshman Kyndal Reich saw serving action in each rotation, with seniors Joey Perry, Grace Moore, Jade O'Rourke, Addy Olsen, and libero Hannah Kilgore seeing the lion share of the playing time.

The match was close in each set with the lady mustangs forcing a 4th set. The longhorns won the first set 25-20 before the mustangs came back strong. Gordon-Rushville took the second set 25-22 and led early in third set before Kimball took that one, 25-17. In the fourth set, the mustangs seemed to be forcing a fifth set until Kimball came back to tie the game at 21 and take their first lead of the set, 22-21. Kimball won the set 26-24 and the match 3-1.

With the victory, Kimball punched their ticket to Valentine to take on the #1 seed Valentine Lady Badgers.

The badgers had a 21-10 season coming into their chance to host the sub-districts. Kimball started strong but fell in the first set 25-15 to the lady badgers. The second match stayed closer with the Badgers prevailing 25-19. In the third set, Kimball led the whole way. The badgers came back to tie it at 24, but that was as close as they would get as Kimball took the set 26-24. In the fourth set, the lady Badgers jumped out to an early lead. They took the set 25-11, and the match 3-1.

Kimball loses six seniors at the end of this school year. There are currently a record number of young ladies in the Jr. High volleyball program.