Lady Raiders place 2nd at Alliance event

The Sidney High School volleyball team captured second place at the annual six-team Dig Pink Tournament in Alliance on Saturday.

The Lady Raiders downed Scottsbluff (25-27, 25-22, 25-10) and Dundy County-Stratton (25-12, 23-25, 27-25) in thrilling pool-play matches. Sidney then fell to red-hot Chadron in the championship match, 25-22, 25-20.

Chadron improved to 28-4 this season with the victory and has won 14 consecutive matches. Sidney stands at 14-15 this fall.

In the title match, Sidney freshman Payton Jung had eight kills and four blocks and teammate Maddi Porter contributed seven kills. Kelsey Knight had four kills and 11 digs, Annalise Lecher added eight blocks and Emily Mahr provided 18 assists and nine digs for the Lady Raiders.

Jung had a team-high 17 kills, four aces and eight digs for Sidney in its pool play matchup with Scottsbluff. Alex Wamsley and Lecher had six kills apiece. Lecher also provided nine blocks. Jasmine Jallen registered three aces, Mahr had 29 assists and Knight contributed 20 digs and four kills.

Against Dundy County-Stratton, Porter led the way with 15 kills. Jung (six kills), Lecher (five kills, five blocks), Mahr (four aces, 24 assists), Wamsley (three blocks) and Knight (21 digs) also paced the attack.

In the tournament’s third-place match, Alliance defeated Scottsbluff, while Gering downed Dundy County-Stratton for fifth place.

Sidney wraps up its regular season on Tuesday when it hosts Kimball (16-8) at 5 p.m.