Sidney Volleyball Excels at Aurora

Sidney’s Lady Raider Volleyball team traveled to the Aurora Invite over the weekend, and faced a higher level of competition with great results.

In three matches, the Sidney squad won two and lost one to the No. 1 ranked Class B Waverly Lady Vikings.

Sidney started with Saturday morning’s first match at 9 a.m. against host Aurora, and started the competition with a thrilling rally for a victory. After battling the Lady Huskies through a tough first set, Sidney finally took the opener 26-to-24 only to have Aurora regroup and take the second set 25-to-19, setting up a third set tiebreaker.

Sidney looked to be in big trouble going down 5-to-14, but staged a furious rally, going on runs to narrow the gap and then eventually pulling away for the 25-to-22 third set and match victory.

Sidney Head Coach Marcus Ehke said, “Aurora played extremely well, and it was a huge challenge playing on their home floor at 9 a.m. In that third set we stayed resilient and made a great comeback as a team.”

Sidney next faced the York Lady Dukes, and dropped the first set 23-to-25 after struggling with their serves. The Lady Raiders regrouped and cleaned up their play in the next two sets, taking the second set 25-to-17 and the third 25-to-22 for the 2 to-1 match victory.

“York has a great hitter, Masa Schierman, and she made it tough for us to go on service runs and cost us the first set. We played much more cleanly in the next two sets and established a rythm to get the match win,” Ehrke said.

Finally, the Lady Raiders faced the powerhouse Waverly Lady Vikings and came out strong and focused. Sidney battled throughout the start of the contest, forcing Waverly to call a timeout midway through the first set to stop the Lady Raider’s momentum.

Sidney then struggled through the last points of the set, struggling with service receptions while the Lady Vikings pulled away for a 25-to-20 first set victory. The Waverly momentum carried over into the second set, and although Sidney kept it close the Lady Vikings took the second set 25-to-18 for the match victory.

Ehrke was pleased with the results, saying, “Waverly presented us with so many weapons, but we held our own and challenged them well. We learned that when playing the number one team in Class B that three or four errors in a row could cost you the set.

Even with the defeat we feel like we can play with the best of the best and left Aurora satisfied yet hungry to improve heading into the final weeks of our season.”