Minden wins, Kearney Catholic second at Gothenburg Harvest Festival Volleyball Tournament
GOTHENBURG— Six games, six sweeps.
That was the story for the Minden Whippets at the Gothenburg Harvest Festival Volleyball Tournament, taking first place with a 6-0 record in the two-day even on Friday and Saturday.
"Last year we went 6-0 and got second because Gothenburg also went 6-0," Minden head coach Julie Ratka said. "It feels good to bring home first place, we played really good defense, passed really well, and served tough which allowed our setters to pass the ball around and get the offense going."
Kearney Catholic finished second with a 5-1 record, only losing to the Whippets in the opening game Friday.
In the opening Kearney Catholic-Minden showdown, The Whippets earned a 25-20, 25-15 win, but the Stars recollected themselves to win five straight afterwards.
"We started off with Minden in the first game, and I don't think we quite played up to our potential, but the rest of the weekend we played pretty well," Kearney Catholic head coach Robbie Jochum said. "Going 5-1 with a lot of good competition here, I'm happy with that."
"They're going to get better, they have a good program, and we'll possibly see them down the line again," Ratka said.
Minden's closest match was with Ogallala, winning 25-20, 25-23, in a game where Ogallala only made one error.
York also had just one error against Minden, but the Whippets handled that one easier, winning 25-18, 25-14 on Saturday.
"We know where we want to be at the end, and we did get everybody's best shot," Ratka said. "York was a good test for us. Everyone contributed, there were some really tough rallies and it's good to pick up wins against Class B teams, and they've really improved."
The most dominant performance was the win over St. Paul, taking the first set by an astounding 25-6, and the second 25-14.
Kearney Catholic racked up some impressive wins, including ending the weekend with a 25-16, 17-25, 25-16 win over York.
Kearney Catholic had three sweeps, including a 25-19, 25-20 win over Ogallala and a 25-23, 25-20 win over Aurora.
The Stars also won a three set match against Gothenburg 15-25, 25-19, 25-18.
The weekend was a positive for Kearney Catholic, who went from only playing five games all season to six matches in two days.
"We had a slow start to the season as far as games go, and next week we have games Tuesday and Thursday and a tournament Saturday, so this was important before the meat of our season," Jochum said. "Our girls are getting tired of practice, so its been good to play some games now. We lost so many people last year, and we're only going to get better as a new group playing all these games against quality competition."
