VOLLEYBALL: Lady Apahes ready for season's final stretch
By Erin Breyne
Apache Staff
The Lady Apaches have always taken volleyball seriously, but now it’s crunch time for the squad. The Apaches have a record of 17-10 overall and a record of 6-2 in the Arrowhead Conference.
The team has shown a level of togetherness that has brought them to second place in the conference standings.
Coach Laurie Polte has high hopes for her team in the upcoming meets.
“Highland was a tough game and should be a really good match,” Polte said about the Oct. 26 home match.
The Division II Playoffs are coming up on Oct. 31, but Polte isn’t sure who and where the women will be playing. The coach said she is assuming they will be ranked second in the playoffs.
Polte is also unsure who the women might face in the Regional Tournament that begins Nov. 3.
“How we do in the Playoffs determines who we may face in the Regional Tournament,” Polte said.
Polte said her squad has had many strong individual performances this year.
“Tammy Thompson is wonderful leading us defensively, and she never says die,” the coach said.
Polte said the setters are doing a great job getting everything up, and have committed very few errors. Leslie Seneca is an enormous help because of her lead in kills and consistency. But unlike Seneca, the team sometimes lacks consistency.
“Sometimes we play very well and then the next day we turn around and play terribly,” the coach said.
The most recent game before press time, Oct. 19 against Danville, was “one of the worst games we ever played,” said Polte.
In the second game of that dual match, against Waubonsee, the Lady Apaches had a rough start but pulled it off, eventually winning 9-15, 15-8, 15-9.
On Oct. 18, Rock Valley fell to the Apaches with a score of 15-9, 15-8, 15-2. Carl Sandburg was also washed out even though the Apaches didn’t start off right.
“(Sandburg) had game point on us for a long time but pulled through in the end with a score of 17-15, 15-4, 15 -8."