Lady Wildcats get off to a 1-2 start on new season

WINSIDE — The Hartington-Newcastle Lady Wildcats hit the volleyball court running with four matches in three days, opening the season 1-3 with a season opening loss at Crofton and winning one of three matches in the Winside quadrangular.

In the quadrangular in Winside, HNS opened the event against Howells- Dodge then moved on to play the hosts and ended on a high note with its first win of the season over Randolph.

The Lady Wildcats swept the Lady Cardinals 25-14 and 25-13 in the best-of-three-sets match led by Lauren Howell’s seven kills.

But it was the Hartington-Newcastle serve which highlighted the win.

Mani Lange served an astonishing 10 aces in the match which kept the Lady Wildcats on the gas pedal as they cruised to the win.

“We were very dominant in our serving and serve receiving,” Lady Wildcat coach Sarah Edwards said. “This gave us more opportunities for clean hits.”

Zoey Gratzfeld and Olivia Grutsch each had a couple of ace serves, Mckenzie Bruning and Kendra Anderson each had one ace.

Grutsch had 14 set assists and Abi Rice had 10 digs.

HNS lost the match to Winside in heartbreaking fashion as they exploded to take the opening set, 25-14 before the home team took the second set 2624 and held on in the third and final set 27-25 to win the match.

“We played very clean in the first set as the score indicated,” Edwards said. “We struggled with consistency in the last two sets which got us into a back-and-forth situation and left us just short of a win.”

Howell again led the attack with 11 winners in the match, Maddie Steffen and Bruning each had six.

Gratzfeld had the hot hand at the service line in this match with seven ace serves, Lange had three and Grutsch had a couple.

Rice, Lange and Howell each had 17 digs, Grutsch had a dozen and also registered 28 assists.

In the opening match of the quadrangular, the Lady Wildcats were swept by Howells-Dodge.

Howell had seven kills, Gratzfeld, Bruning and Lange each had three.

Lange had 22 digs in the match, Rice had 13 while Grutsch had 16 assists.

Hartington-Newcastle traveled to Crofton in the season opener on Aug. 24 and fell to the Lady Warriors, 25-12, 25-15 and 25-23.

“We were just trying to find a rhythm the first game out,” Edwards said. “We had excellent serve receive and defensive plays, but we really struggled hitting the ball.”

Gratzfeld had seven kills and Howell added six on the night.Rice had nine digs and Grutsch had 14 assists.

The Lady Wildcats head to the Wynot Quadrangular Aug. 31 before heading to Winnebago on Sept. 5.

Hartington-Newcastle 25 25 Randolph 14 13 HNS: Abi Rice 10d; Mani Lange 10a, 8d; Zoey Gratzfeld 4k, 2a, 2d; Kendra Anderson 1a, 5d; Lauren Howell 7k, 5d; Olivia Grutsch 2a, 4d, 14s; Maddie Steffen 1d; Mckenzie Bruning 4k, 1a, 1d. Winside 14 26 27 Hartington-Newcastle 25 24 25 HNS: Rice 17d; Lange 4k, 3a, 17d, 3s; Gratzfeld 2k, 7a, 3d; Anderson 1a, 8d; Howell 11k, 1a, 17d; Grutsch 3k, 2a, 12d, 28s; Steffen 6k, 1d; Bruning 6k, 1b, 2d, 1s. Howells-Dodge Hartington-Newcastle 2-0. HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Rice 13d, 10sr; Lange 3k, 22d, 10sr; Gratzfeld 3k, 1a, 1b, 4d; Anderson 8d, 3sr; Howell 7k, 3b, 11sr; Grutsch 8d, 16s; Bruning 3k, 1a, 6b, 1d, 1sr. Crofton 25 25 25 Hartington-Newcastle 12 15 23 HNS: Rice 9d, 15sr; Lange 2k, 6d; Gratzfeld 7k; Anderson 2d; Howell 6k, 1a, 8d; Grutsch 6d, 14s; Bruning 3k.