Lady ’Cats move to .500 with Bloomfield win

HARTINGTON — The Hartington- Newcastle volleyball team evened its season record at 6-6 with a win over Bloomfield at home on Sept. 19 in Lewis and Clark Conference volleyball action.

The Lady Wildcats dropped the opening set 28-26, but came charging back to win three straight sets, 25-21, 25-23 and 25-17, to take the best-of-five-sets match 3-1.

Hartington-Newcastle got an outstanding performance from its balanced front line as the Lady Wildcats finished the match with 47 kills.

Lauren Howell led the Lady Wildcat brigade with 12 winners in the match; Mani Lange, Zoey Gratzfeld and McKenzie Bruning each had nine slams. Maddie Steffen and Olivia Grutsch had five and three winners, respectively.

Bruning also served four aces on the night, Kendra Anderson added three and the Lady Wildcats scored a dozen points on aces.

Grutsch also recorded 38 setassists and Abi Rice made good on 29 passes to get the offense rolling.

Anderson added 18 good passes and Lange recorded 16.

Lange paced the defense with 21 digs, Anderson and Grutsch each had 18, Rice added 15 and Howell has 12.

Grutsch had a double-double in assist and digs while Howell earned a double-double in kills and digs.

Hartington-Newcastle was set to open a busy week with a match in Homer Sept. 25 and a triangular Sept. 26 at home with Wausa and Wakefield.

The Lady Wildcats will remain on their home court with conference dates with Plainview on Sept. 28 and Randolph on Oct. 3.

Hartington-Newcastle 26 25 25 25 Bloomfield 28 21 23 17 HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE (6-6): Abi Rice 15d, 1s, 29r; Mani Lange 9k, 1a, 21d, 1s, 16r; Zoey Gratzfeld 9k, 1a, 1b, 7d; Kendra Anderson 3a, 18d, 1s, 18r; Lauren Howell 12k, 2a, 12d, 3s, 10r; Olivia Grutsch 3k, 1a, 18d, 38s; Maddie Steffen 5k, 1d, 2s; McKenzie Bruning 9k, 4a, 1b, 2d, 1s, 2r.