After splitting matches with Keota and Cardinal, the Lady Lion volleyball team met WACO in the final match of the Lone Tree tournament. The Warriors had breezed through the first four sets — the closest being a 21-13 win over the Comets. 

After falling 25-17 in the first set, Lone Tree played some of its best volleyball of the day while building a 20-17 lead in the second. But WACO (16-8) allowed just one more point while finishing the sweep to take Tuesday’s tournament championship. 

Lone Tree (5-16) took one out of three matches to finish third. 

“We are really working on trying to be more aggressive,” Lone Tree coach Lora Sieverding said. “We give other teams way too many free balls, and 80 percent of those end in a kill on our side, so we need to get angry and play with more fire and aggression much sooner in our matches. “And then when we get the lead, which we have in almost every set we have been in the past week, we need to maintain it.”

Lone Tree had a 10-3 lead early in its first set with Cardinal (4-17), but the Comets came back for a 25-18, 25-16 sweep. 

“Giving that away is a real buzz kill, particularly when they were not earned Cardinal points, but rather our own errors,” Sieverding said. 

Riley Krueger led Lone Tree with five kills and 13 digs in the two-set loss. She finished with 10 kills and 23 digs for the tournament.  

Lone Tree opened the tournament with a comeback win over Keota. The Eagles took the first set 25-19, but Lone Tree came back with 25-22 and 15-12 set wins to take the match. Sieverding said that better serving was key. 

“We have been seriously struggling on our serves for the past couple matches, and even in the first set with Keota we were terrible at serving, at 70 percent,” she said. 

“Our goal has always been to be at least in the 90 percent area or higher. It’s a real momentum killer to miss serve after serve. But the team shook off the first set disaster and came back with a 95 percent average over the next two sets, with eight aces.” 

Alivia Hemsted was 9-for-9 serving in the match and went 18-for-18 with two aces on the day. Krueger led Lone Tree with five aces in the match. Alyssa Knock had eight digs in the match and 23 for the tournament.

Kylie Patterson had six kills in the match and finished the day with 11. Ellen Carow had six kills and four aces against Keota. She had a team-high 12 kills for the tournament. 

“I was happy to see our mental toughness improving,” Sieverding said. “They didn’t let the first set loss deter them from coming out hard in set two and playing with more aggression — with more of a will to win.”

Ella Buser came back after missing the SEISC tournament with an injury. She had 14 assists in the win over Keota and finished the day with 25.  

Freshman Hayden Yoder, who filled in at setter during Buser’s absence, saw more varsity time on Tuesday. She went 16-17 serving and recorded her first varsity ace during the match with WACO. 

Backup setter Kayla Dautremont also returned after being out sick, but Sieverding said it will take a little while for the team to get back on the same page and reach its potential. 

“We just haven’t had time to practice together and find our groove again,” she said. “But I strongly believe we will.”

Lone Tree played three tight sets with Danville on Monday, October 4, but the Bears took the match with a 25-13 win in the fourth. Lone Tree took the second 25-21, but dropped the first and third each by a score of 25-23. A busy week for Lone Tree continues with a trip to Winfield Mt. Union on Tuesday and a home game against Columbus on Thursday.