The Warriors played their first big tournament recently in the Bellevue West Invitational on Aug.30 and Aug.31. The team showed up to play and only fell to Papillion La Vista South, winning them third place overall. Andrew Wehrli, the varsity head coach, was satisfied with their results.
“We lost to Papio South after Ash [Ashlyn Paymal] got concussed. We were up by four or five points in that second set after starting flat. I feel like we’re right where we want to be, we just have some work to do in the gym,” Wehrli said.
In their first round of tournament play on Friday Aug.30 the girls faced off against Lincoln East, Papillion La Vista and Elkhorn South. They powered through to take victories in all three of these matches. In their first match against Lincoln East, senior outside hitter Sky Miller helped lead the team to a win with nine kills. Miller believed these games were a great way to test the team’s strengths and weaknesses.
“It [the invitational] was definitely a growth period for us. We definitely figured out things that we need to work on and definitely found some strengths,” Miller said.
Miller played great in their other two games that night as well. She led the team in kills in their next match against Elkhorn South. She also served up three aces in that game. She was very happy with their performance considering they had just come off a tough 5 set win a day before against Millard West.
“We came in super tired, but knowing these are important games to start our season,” Miller said. “I think we learned that we all have to come together, give each other grace, and just know that we’re all fighting for the same goal at the end of the year.”
Another key player in the tournament was senior setter Peyton Meyer. She led the team with 36 assists in their first match on Sunday Aug.31 against the Millard North Mustangs. She thinks the team was able to prove what they are capable of even in tough situations during this long weekend.
“We have a lot to work on. We have a lot of parts to our game. We also learned that we can beat teams and be gritty,” Meyer said. “I don’t think we played well in certain situations but we were able to find wins. So I learned we can be gritty even if it’s not the cleanest volleyball.”
The Warriors won against both Millard North and Mt.Vernon in the second day of the Invitational. Against Millard North they won the first set but fell just short of the win in the second set falling by only four points. The team fought back and dominated the last set to take the win. In their next game against Mt. Vernon, they had trouble finding their groove in the first set, losing by ten points. They recovered well and barely brought out wins in each of the last two sets to win the match.
Their last game of the day was against Papillion La Vista South, the third ranked team in Nebraska. Sadly, the team fell short in both the first and second sets. One of their best players, Ashlyn Paymal, took a hard hit to the head and got concussed during the game. This led them to take the tough loss of the big competitor. The girls look to get some confidence back in their upcoming games this week against the defending state champions and runner up. The players are all ready to take on this challenge.
“We just have to come in with the right mindset, ready to work, take control, making sure we’re not making those mental errors that Wehrli talks about, and being ready to win. I think we’ve got it,” Miller said.
Wehrli is also very excited for the upcoming games this week. He believes that what they have learned from this past tournament will help propel them to big wins against these highly competitive teams.
“I think it’s going to be a really great week. I’m hoping that Ashlyn’s back next week. We’ll see, she’s on concussion protocol right now. I feel like we’ll still win both of those matches no matter what the circumstances are,” Wehrli said.
The team faces off against Papillion La Vista, the defending state champions, on Tuesday Sept.10, and Lincoln Southwest, the state runner up, on Thursday Sept.12.
