Overton wins fourth straight FKC volleyball championship

KEARNEY— The Overton senior class will graduate never knowing what its like to not win the Fort Kearny Conference volleyball tournament.

The Eagles earned their fourth straight FKC championship on Thursday, sweeping No. 6 seed Ansley Litchfield 25-14, 25-16, 25-15.

"These girls have been working for this and got to watch the teams ahead of them compete at a tough level and they've had to learn from the best," Overton head coach Hayley Ryan said. "This team is very consistent, they're very deserving and what a time for the Eagles."

Big runs in each set separated Overton from the Spartans. A 5-0 run in the first set jumped the lead from 12-10 to 17-10, a 6-1 run streak in the second set jumped the advantage to six points, and a 7-0 rally gave Overton a big early cushion in the third.

"You have to be able to pull away to be comfortable, and we did a nice job with our serving and had several aces," Ryan said. "We did a great job spot serving, going deep when some of their front row players were pulling back."

Overton had eight aces in the game, with Halynn Hughes, Braelyn Florell and Gracen Hughes all having two aces.

The Eagles served 94.7 percent as a team.

Daisy Ryan led Overton with 15 kills, and Gracen Hughes followed with 10.

"They were able to hit just where we were not at," Ansley/Litchfield head coach Jamee Smith said. "We did a good job of stopping, regrouping and trying to make a run, we just had a few too many errors in there, but I'm proud of how we refused to give up."

Also a huge factor in the game was blocking, with the Eagles notching seven blocks, and using a double block to neutralize Kerry Ryan, Ansley/Litchfield's best scorer who had over 30 kills in the semifinal.

Haylynn Hughes had 13 digs, Chlore Svarvari had 10, and Kyla Elfgren led the game with 30 assists.

"Our girls did a nice job of keeping the momentum throughout the game," Hayley Ryan said. "Ansley/Litchfield is one of those teams you want to come out and play your best against."

For Ansley/Litchfield, the loss marks the end of a dream run to its first-ever FKC final, taking down the No. 3 seed S-E-M and No. 2 seed Amherst in the early rounds of the tournament.

"At the end of the game I reminded them we deserve to be here even if it didn't come out in our favor at the end," Smith said. "They worked incredibly hard all week long, the future is bright for us and this will help us prepare for the postseason,"

"This conference is amazing and we were lucky enough to beat two really good teams, everyone in the school should be proud of these girls, I can't say enough how proud I am."