Lady Warriors Serve Up A Win Over Lady Falcons Tuesday

Neligh-Oakdale tallied 13 ace serves against Elkhorn Valley, and that strong serving carried them to a 25-18, 25-18, 26-24 sweep on Tuesday night.

"It was good to see some aggressive serving from a few girls on all teams that I haven't seen in practice, so now we need to work on consistency of those aggressive servers and use that to help score points," N-O Coach Hannah Hoefer said. 

Danae Smith led the Lady Warriors with 6 ace serves, followed by Kristin Rice with 3, Hallie Knutson with 2, and Shelby Keetle and Nikki Grosserode with 1 each. 

Elkhorn Valley Coach Emily Vaughn also acknowledged the tough serves by the Lady Warriors.

"The Lady Falcons did not get off to the start that we wanted against Neligh-Oakdale," Vaughn said. "Credit to Neligh's strong servers, our offense didn't really come alive until the third set."

Coach Hoefer said the Lady Warriors still need to focus on their defensive play.

"We need to work on our movement being quicker and reading the ball sooner," she said. "Our middles played very aggressively at the net. I have been impressed with Nikki Grosserode coming in as a sophomore and playing at the varsity level for the first year. We can tell she's working hard to get a touch on any ball she can, and I love the energy she brings to the court, and with every game she will get experience to continue building confidence in herself. Kristin Rice also has great leadership, fighting for any ball that's in her area. If it's her ball, I know she is going to do whatever it takes to keep that ball playable." 

The EV coach said her team got off to a slow start against the Lady Warriors, but she was pleased with the way they battled back in the third set.

"In the first two sets, we spotted them way too many points, and had to fight back to get into the games," Vaughn said. "In the final set, the scores stayed close and it was a much more competitive game for the Lady Falcons."

On Thursday, Elkhorn Valley (1-2) will go on the road to take on 1-3 Niobrara/Verdigre.

Neligh-Oakdale (2-1) will play in Fullerton on Thursday in a triangular with 3-0 Fullerton and 3-1 Burwell. The Lady Warriors' first match is scheduled for 6 p.m. against Burwell.