Class 1: Lesterville-Winona

Lesterville-Winona: Game 1

Winona has jumped out to an early 4-0 lead. I'm almost caught up with some administrative work. Be back with you in a moment.

8-3 Winona. A lot of errors are coming from the Lesterville side of the court right now. We'll see if the Bearcats can settle down.

12-6 Winona. I feel so old every time a player sets a serve from the back row, which is a common occurrence these days. It was uber-rare way back in my days. Lesterville libero RayVen Nichols is particularly proficient with the move.

13-6 Winona. Timeout Lesterville.

16-10 Winona. Tips are falling in front of the 10-foot line for Lesterville right now, but their hitters have zeroed in a bit.

17-11 Winona. Just as I typed that last update Lesterville's Taylor Cook got stuffed, but she's getting some good swings.

18-11 Winona. Lesterville timeout.

Lesterville coach Betsy Middleton has been imploring here team from the sideline to, "Get up. Get up. Get up." She's taken a seat now, but she's been up for a big part of the the match.

20-12 Winona. Taylor Cook with a kill. She is fun to watch on the outside.

21-15 Winona. Cook is serving. Nichols has been a vacuum in the back row. Good luck getting it past her.

22-16 Winona. Winona got a sideout when of a block out of bounds by the Bearcats. It looks like Lesterville is playing better now. I haven't seen them this year, so I can't tell if they are playing as well as they can just yet.

25-16 Winona. The Wildcats were very impressive in that game. They definitely got their offense going early on and they didn't let up. To that point, Winona had 15 kills in game one to Lesterville's seven.

Game two:

While we're here, I'll say that I'm not a big fan of Municipal Auditorium in general. All the fans are up above the players, minimizing some the crowd interaction and noise I love about high school championships. So far the loudest crowd of the day easily belongs to Class 1 Lutheran High School, which is currently playing on the other court. That's not really a surprise, though, since the school is in Kansas City.

3-0 Lesterville. The Bearcats are the ones to jump out early this time. Better play and a lot more energy coming from their side of the court early on.

4-2 Lesterville. Another tip in front of the 10-foot line for Winona is good. They've found an empty spot out of the middle.

8-3 Lesterville. Huge stuff out of the middle by Lesterville's Chelsey Holland.

10-7 Lesterville. Winona on a run, but Holland just got a kill to get the Bearcats a sideout.

10-9 Lesterville. Winona just rotated into one of their best rotations, with libero Megan Manis serving. She can jump-serve, but she's having a lot of success on the ground right now.

11-10 Winona. Timeout Lesterville. Manis still serving.

11-11 tie. Big break for the Bearcats out of the timeout as Manis nets a serve.

15-12 Lesterville. Taylor Cook with another kill. She just moved to the front row, so we'll see how much damage she can do. They're going to her pretty much every chance they get.

17-12 Lesterville. Winona is finally forced to call a timeout.

The Lesterville fan got an "LHS" cheer going during the timeout. Another negative about Municipal Auditorium is that fans of a team can't really sit together in a big group since the closest seats to the floor are in small sections.

20-14 Lesterville. Nichols back to serve.

21-14 Lesterville. Winona timeout.

23-14 Lesterville. Holland just had another monster stuff, and by monster I mean there is no covering that block. There's just not.

24-16 Lesterville. Timeout Lesterville.

24-17 Lesterville. There were a few tentative swings for the Bearcats on that point.

25-17 Lesterville. No worries, though. The Bearcats finish off game two to go 1-1 in their first pool-play match.

I just made the move over to Court 1, where Scott City and Lesterville will play their next matches. I'll check on other pool play scores in just a minute.

The final numbers for the Lesterville-Winona split looked like this. Taylor Cook led Lesterville with 10 kills on a 37 attempts. Her nearest teammate was Stephanie Hill who had three kills on 12 attempts. Chelsey Holland had three stuff blocks.

Tiffany Sullivan led Winona with nine kills on 17 attacks. She made just one error. MaKayla Nichols had eight kills on 34 attempts, including 11 errors.