LONE TREE

Welcoming multiple schools for a home quad, the Lady Lions captured two victories in front of their home faithful on Oct. 1. 

Going up against Keota, Lone Tree earned a 2-0 win (24-22, 21-17) over the Eagles. 

In the first set, Lone Tree built up a six point advantage but after a timeout, Keota rallied to tie the game at 15-15. The score remained close for the rest of the contest, where the game went into a deuce, but it was Lone Tree who prevailed in the end with consecutive points to take a 1-0 lead. 

Falling behind by four in the second set, the Lady Lions turned the tables with five straight points to go in front.

Building their lead to as many as five, Lone Tree took control of the match. Even when the Eagles threatened to tie the game, coming within one, Lone Tree scored three straight to win the set and the match. 

It was a collective team effort when it came to offense for the Lady Lions as they had the senior trio of Rylee Shield, Avery Morarie, and Cate Sexton all leading the team in kills (2). Leading the team in assists was Hayden Yoder with six and leading in digs was Alex Dautremont with seven. 

Next up for Lone Tree was a game against WACO, and it was another victory for the Lady Lions, taking a 2-1 win (21-23, 21-18, 15-10) over the Warriors. 

WACO started strong by winning a hard fought first set. Lone Tree was on the doorstep on claiming the first set with a 20-17 lead, but the Warriors tied the game to bring the matchup to a deuce and then went on to win.

The second set proved to be just as close as the one before it, but this time it was Lone Tree who came out on top. When the game became all knotted up at 18-18, the Lady Lions scored three straight points to even the matchup at 1-1. 

In the final set the Lady Lions did not trail once. Leading by as many as six, Lone Tree kept WACO at a distance for the entire set. It was Shield who scored the winning point for Lone Tree to propel them to 2-1 victory. 

Accomplishing an impressive milestone in the win was Dautremont, reaching 500 digs in her career. Against WACO the senior accounted for a team high 10 digs. 

Tallying a team leading seven kills for Lone Tree was Morarie and Yoder once again led in assists with 15. 

Lone Tree 3, Pekin 1

Picking up a conference victory on the road, the Lady Lions continued their hot streak by defeating Pekin, 3-1 (19-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-17) on Oct. 3. 

After dropping the first set, Lone Tree bounced back with three straight wins to claim their second conference victory of the season and to increase their season record to 8-14. Lone Tree’s eight wins are the most for the program since 2016.  

Reaching double digit kills, Cate Sexton led Lone Tree on offense with a team high 10 kills. She also led the team in blocks with three Fellow senior Avery Morarie also had a quality night on offense, tallying eight kills. 

Other seniors who led Lone Tree on the night were Hayden Yoder and  Alex Dautremont. Yoder dished out a team high 29 assists and Dautremont recorded a team high 18 digs. 

Up next for Lone Tree (8-14) is a road game against conference opponent Wapello (13-11) on Oct. 10.