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CROFTON — The Hartington-Newcastle Lady Wildcats fought to the bitter end in what turned out to be their final match of the 2023 season in the C2-5 SubDistrict Volleyball Tournament on Oct. 23 in Crofton.
The Lady Wildcats scratched and clawed the entire match before falling to Ponca 25-13, 24-26, 22-25, 25-20 and 15-13 to finish the season with a 15-15 record.
It appeared the match would be over early as the Lady Indians drilled the Lady Wildcats 25-13 in the opening set, but Hartington-Newcastle righted the ship late in set two.
The second set was tight throughout and was deadlocked at 22-22 when Ponca was called for two hits.
The Lady Indians hit a winner to tie it back up 23-23, but a hitting error gave the advantage back to the Lady Wildcats.
A kill off the net tied the score again, but a great play by Lauren Howell put Hartington-Newcastle up 25-24 and a Ponca hitting error gave the set to the Lady Wildcats and evened the match at one set each.
Hartington-Newcastle used the momentum from the second set to propel them to the win in set three.
The Lady Wildcats opened the third with a 7-0 run and maintained a lead until Ponca tied it 16-16 on a Hartington-Newcastle hitting error.
Trailing 21-19, McKenzie Bruning stuffed a Ponca kill at the net to make it 21-20, but Ponca hit a winner next to make it 22-20.
Three consecutive Ponca errors put the Lady Wildcats in the driver’s seat with a 23-22 lead.
A clever tip-kill by Zoey Gratzfeld and a winner off of a Ponca touch put their team over the top and in control of the match 2-1.
Ponca pulled away late in set four, scoring three consecutive points to make it 23-19, causing Lady Wildcats coach Sarah Edwards to call a timeout.
Maddie Steffen slammed a winner off of the Ponca block to make it 23-20, but the Lady Indians closed out the set with a kill and a block.
In the final sprint to 15, Ponca was up 8-4 before the Lady Wildcats mounted one last comeback.
Bruning returned an overpass straight down to the Lady Indian side of the court to get to within one at 11-10.
After a Ponca slam, Mani Lange was back at it with a kill off the touch to make it 12-11.
The Lady Indians got to match point at 14-12, but another timeout by Edwards settled the Lady Wildcats long enough to get one more point.
Gratzfeld nailed a winner to make it 14-13, but Ponca closed out the set and the match with a tip-kill down the net.
Full statistics were not available at press time and will be included in next week’s Cedar County News.
The statistics from last week’s matches with Homer and Wynot in the Lewis and Clark Conference Volleyball Tournament can be found below.
Wynot def HNS 23-25, 25-21, 25-17. HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE (15-15): Abi Rice 4d, 9r; Mani Lange 1k, 1a, 1b, 8d, 17r; Zoey Gratzfeld 8k, 2b, 8d, 1s, 9r; Kendra Anderson 10d, 7r; Lauren Howell 5k, 1a, 17d, 1s, 11r, Olivia Grutsch 2k, 1b, 9d, 18s; Maddie Steffen 1k, 1d, 1r; McKenzie Bruning 5k, 1a, 6d, 1s, 2r. Homer defeats HNS 25-17, 18-25, 25-23. HARTINGTON-NEWCASTLE: Rice 10d, 21r; Lange 1a, 19d, 8r; Gratzfeld 4k, 1d; Anderson 2a, 5d, 5r; Howell 2k, 3a, 6d, 8r; Grutsch 1k, 2a, 1b, 6d, 17s, 2r; Steffen 3k, 2b, 3d, 2r; Bruning 7k, 1a, 4b, 1d; Emma Wubben 1a.
