by The start of volleyball season has been up and down but our ladies are improving every time out.
by Anthony Le Claire, The Haskell Indian Leader Newspaper
(Note: Story reposted with the permission of the Haskell Indian Leader Student Newspaper. All rights Reserved.)
The season of digs and kills is upon us again Indian Territory! The Haskell Volleyball team kicked off their season last Friday night with a win over Bacone College (Okla.), returning nine players from last season including four seniors. Our Haskell ladies won the match 3 sets to 1 with game scores of (25-22), (27-25), (23-25), and (27-25). Tiffany Runs Through led the way with 18 Kills along with 2 serving aces followed by Aspen Sheperd who contributed 12 Kills of her own. It was a well-paced contest filled with lots of energy from both players and the crowd. I caught up with Coach Nanabah Allison-Brewer after the game and though she felt the serving was not on par of where she would like she was excited about getting an opening win on their home floor and has high hopes for the season.
Following Friday’s opening victory the volleyball team took their talents to Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina, KS for the La Quinta-KWU Volleyball Invitational. The two day tournament hosted 10 teams from Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa and South Dakota. Haskell’s first match of the tournament was against Oklahoma City University where they suffered a disappointing 3 sets to 0 loss. Sophomore Nicole Curley had a team high of 8 Kills alongside 24 AST from Freshman Randi Romero. The team followed that up with a win in their second match of the day against Mount Marty College of Yankton, SD. The fighting Indians won in four sets with 5 overall blocks and 42 overall Kills in the victory.
Day two started off with a rematch against Bacone College. In a five set marathon the Indians came up short losing 3-2. In the loss there was stellar play from Seniors Tiffany Runs Through with 19 Kills on 50 attempts and Lisa Atcitty who contributed 17 AST and 13 Digs. The Lady Indians ended the tournament with a 3-1 loss to Tabor College (KS), winning the third set 25-17.
After a rough weekend our Ladies returned home September 2nd for a contest against Graceland University (IA). It was another tough night with the team losing 3-0. Graceland controlled the first two sets winning (25-16), (25-14) but after an inspired speech from Senior Skye Norwood that set flame to the team, they jumped out to a quick start in the third set. Unfortunately for the squad they still fell in the third set 26-24. An interview with Norwood after the game gave some insight to what was said to light a fire under her team “We should have a lot more effort, our energy just wasn’t there tonight. We got started late and it was too little too late by the time we got going.” Senior Tiffany Runs Through expanded saying, “We didn’t want to lose three straight on our home court, we had worked really hard in a tournament we had this passed weekend and we told ourselves we wouldn’t go down the way we did but we did pick it up the last game which was good.” Coach Brewer, who is still playing with the line up trying to find a right side hitter and get some consistency, was critical but had an optimistic view on the third set of her teams effort, on Graceland’s front line height advantage Brewer stated, “The match ups were a little off, we were also jumping with them when we couldn’t jump with them. They’re big and jump well, we couldn’t find our timing or our rhythm.” Despite the loss Coach Brewer feels it helped her team prepare for conference play which also features imposing front lines. The Fighting Indians volleyball schedule and ticket information can be viewed at haskellathletics.com.
( Anthony LeClaire-Sharp is a Freshman at Haskell Indian Nations University and hails from Sioux Falls, SD. He is a member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe and a writer for the Indian Leader)
