Millard North Slugs Its Way Through Bellevue West Invite Field for Title
BELLEVUE – After needing three sets in its three previous matches to advance to the Bellevue West Invitational championship on Saturday, Millard North clicked on all cylinders in the finals, sweeping Papillion-LaVista 25-22, 25-13 for the title. It was the…
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Continue ReadingBELLEVUE – After needing three sets in its three previous matches to advance to the Bellevue West Invitational championship on Saturday, Millard North clicked on all cylinders in the finals, sweeping Papillion-LaVista 25-22, 25-13 for the title.
It was the most balanced tournament field in many years, but the Mustangs were able to capture their first Bellevue West Invitational title since 2013 by taking advantage of its balanced attack.
“Because we were serve receiving so well, all of our options were available,” Millard North coach Lindsay Peterson said. “It’s hard to block when you have three different looks you can give a team every single time.”
After ending pool play on Friday night with a three-set win over Western Christian, Millard North opened up bracket play on Saturday with a 25-21, 21-25, 25-21 win over Millard South in the quarterfinals and then needed three sets to get past Papillion-LaVsita South 25-17, 20-25, 25-16 in the semifinals.
After hitting below .200 as a team in the first two tournament matches, Millard North’s serve receive set it up for a .254 performance in the championship against the Monarchs. No player took more than 20 swings for Millard North while four were in double figures as setter Izzy Lukens spread the ball around. McKenna Ruch finished with nine kills on a team-high 19 swings for the Mustangs while Allie Kerns had six kills on 15 swings. Paige Holdsworth had a team-best 17 digs to go with three kills and libero Emma Altman had 10 digs and 10 serve receptions.
“I”m happy with what I saw. We have things to work on, for sure, but I”m happy with what I saw,” Peterson said of her team. The Millard North coach also said she expects pretty much every week in Class A to be competitive. “I don’t think it’s a completely level playing field, but it’s pretty darn close. This is probably the closest I’ve seen it at the start (of the season) and I think that’s why you saw so many three-set matches. Everyone is really scrappy.”
Chloe Paschal led Papillion-LaVista with nine kills while Norah Sis had eight and Brooklyn Schram finished with three kills and 15 assists.