How Two Injuries Have Completely Reshaped Class A, C1

NOTE: The above image is just an example and NOT an actual X-ray from one of the players. Injuries might be part of the game, but they are most definitely the worst part. The Injury bug has hit two teams with state-title aspirations in significant ways over the past few days, and it has altered the landscape in both Class A and C1. Certainly the most talked about injury came on Saturday morning when the reigning Class A Player of the Year McKenna Ruch of Millard North broke the pinky finger on her right hand while blocking against an attack from Western Chrisitian. The finger was so deformed that when Ruch turned to the bench to show what happened, nearly every player on the bench covered their face and looked away. To Ruch's credit, she got the finger taped up and came back in to finish out the match, even recording a solo block using just her left arm. Ruch, however, did not play the remainder of the tournament and the defending Class A champs have gone 2-2 in matches without her. Ruch told the Omaha World-Herald that she has surgery scheduled for Friday and she will likely miss 4-6 weeks. At the very earliest, that would put Ruch - and Omaha recruit - back in the Millard North line-up in early October, but if she needs the full six weeks, the Mustangs may have to do without the school's all-time kill leader until the Metro Conference tournament. As bad as it is, there is actually a lot of good news here as well for the Mustangs. They will get Ruch back at some point, which is obviously great news. More good news is that Millard North has senior Eve Fountain, who can handle being the go-to player, as her 17 kills on .317 hitting and 10 digs in a 2-1 loss against Lincoln Pius Tuesday night showed. The other good news is that this will force others on the team into uncomfortable positions and to step-up, which will only make the team deeper and better in the long run. Pin hitters Lauren Maciejewski, a senior, and sophomore Jenna Hamilton along with middles Molly Plahn, a senior, and junior Mollie Fee now have an opportunity to really step up and get more chances with the absence of Ruch, who had been averaging 10 swings a set prior to the injury. Where things will really get interesting, though, is where Millard North will be record-wise when Ruch returns. The Mustangs have an absolutely brutal schedule to begin with, now wins might get harder to find. Millard North got a really nice, gutsy win when it rallied late in the second set to sweep Omaha Marian at the Bellevue West Invite and getting more of those will be key. It won't be easy with Ruch definitely unavailable for the absolutely loaded Millard North Invite and Lincoln Pius X Tournament. Otherwise, Millard North's individual-match schedule the rest of the way is loaded as well, with the likes of #1 Papillion-LaVista, #2 Elkhorn South, #3 Millard West, #8 Millard South and #9 Papillion-LaVista South. While Millard North is fully capable of winning a lot of those matches, it could also be a struggle. It's not crazy to think the 6-3 Mustangs, which are currently sixth in Class A wild card points, could be in that 16-13-ish range record wise when Ruch returns, which would likely have them being around 12-14ish in the wild card standings. If that is the case, what an very unpleasant situation that might be for one of the top teams in Class A to find a healthy Ruch and Millard North team sitting with a #2 seed in their district. Either way, it is going to be fascinating to watch how Millard North handles the loss of Ruch and how it reshapes the landscape in Class A. Similarly, Kearney Catholic came into this season as a legitimate threat to win Class C1, but that took a big hit right before the start of the season when sophomore setter Syd Connor discovered she had a fracture in her lower back that will keep the sophomore setter out until early to mid October at a minimum. It's believed Connor has actually been playing through the injury for nearly a year before it was discovered. She suffered a concussion just before the start of the 2018 season after taking a hard fall onto the court during a practice and was out for a short period of time then, and it is now believed that's when the back injury happened. Without Connor, Kearney Catholic has started the year 1-2 with losses to #4 Columbus Scotus and to Class C2 #2 Hastings St. Cecilia and the Stars have been competitive so far without their setter in a similar way to how Millard North has responded to the loss of Ruch. Much like Millard North as well, Kearney Catholic doesn't exactly have the easiest of schedules to try and get by without Connor as the Centennial Conference team has a number of ranked teams on its slate along with difficult tournaments. There are a pair of ranked teams - Southern Valley and Hastings Adams Central - in Kearney Catholic's subdistrict, so the Stars could be looking at a #3 seed in its district tournament despite being a top-five team in the class if Connor is back healthy. What this potentially sets-up for is Kearney Catholic entering the substate round of 16 as a fairly low seed and being an absolute land mine a higher seed would want to avoid in that round at all costs. With luck, both Ruch and Connor will be back with they teams sooner rather than later, because volleyball in the state of Nebraska is better when they are on the court. Their absence - and their potential returns, however - have a huge impact on the landscape in Class A and C1.