Lady Wildcats finish volleyball campaign with even slate

HARTINGTON — Head coach, Sarah Edwards and the Hartington-Newcastle volleyball team had a roller coaster ride during the 2023 season and ended up .500 when stepping off the ride in the sub-district tournament.

The sub-district game with Ponca, which ended the Lady Wildcat season, was a good sample of the season in its entirety, as Hartington- Newcastle battled throughout the match.

The Lady Wildcats looked overwhelmed in the first set, then clawed back into the match with a 26-24 win in set two.

They kept their foot on the gas in set three with a 25-22 win, fell in set four then went the distance in the sprint to 15 before falling 15-13.

Hartington-Newcastle hovered around .500 until a five-game losing streak hit around the midway point.

In fact, the Lady Wildcats lost six of seven matches to finish September.

In October, they caught fire and put together a run of seven straight wins to get above sea level for the season at 15-12.

“We had tough wins and tough losses this season,” Edwards said. “I was very proud of how hard we worked to help our teammates and the team be successful.”

The main group of varsity players was comprised of four seniors and two juniors, the coach had comments for each of them.

Olivia Grutsch: 1,200 assists in two years as a setter; 96% serving accuracy; 1,400+ digs. “Olivia is an excellent leader on and off the court. She was the Captain of the team for two years.”

Zoey Gratzfeld: 155 kills, 22 blocks, 96.8% serving accuracy, 21 ace serves. “Zoey was a calm leader on the team.”

Mani Lange: 126 kills, 1098 digs, 90% serving accuracy, 46 ace serves. “Mani was a great six-rotation player for us.”

Lauren Howell: 213 kills, 11 blocks, 327 digs, 92% serving accuracy, 21 ace serves.

“Lauren loves volleyball and loves to celebrate her teammates’ successes. She is a ‘go to’ person on the court.”

McKenzie Bruning: 166 kills, 30 blocks, 87% serving accuracy, 30 ace serves. “She is the team firecracker and Spirit.”

Abi Rice: 288 digs, 465 positive serve receive. “Abi is young and is always trying to grow. She is the spark in the back row. Smiles and all.”

Some of the players reached career milestones over the season.

Grutsch went over 1,000 set-assists in her career and had over 1,400 digs. Lange surpassed 1,000 digs in her career.

“We are really going to miss our seniors,” Edwards said. “We have a strong freshmen group coming in next year and they will be a good complement to our returning starters; Abi Rice, McKenzie Bruning and Maddie Steffen. We also have a great group of incoming seniors that have shown to have a lot of potential.”