Perkins County volleyball team continues to battle and improve

by Diane Stamm

Grant tribune-sentinel

One thing can be said for last week’s Perkins County volleyball games—win or lose, the team battled.

PCS Head Coach Monica Cole said even though the Plainsmen’s record shows 1-2 for the week, the team’s play didn’t. 

Cole credited her team with improving steadily throughout the week.

“Their hustle, scrappiness, serving to throw the teams out of system and attacking was what we’re looking for from this team,” Cole said.

Perkins County went to Brady to play the Eagles and South Platte Aug. 30.

PCS fell behind South Platte (2-3) 7-16. The set was far from over. The Plainsmen came back to take a 22-21 lead. Each team had a set point before South Platte won 27-25. PCS maintained a two-point lead up to 13-11 in the second set, but the Knights had a better push to the finish and Perkins County lost 18-25.

Cole said things just didn’t quite fall into place the way her team needed them to, but what she loves to see out of her team the most is that they don’t hold onto a loss for long. 

“We played Brady right after that and they were hungry for a win,” Cole added.

As they did against South Platte, the Plainsmen held a lead for most of the first set against Brady (2-1). A 16-12 lead for PCS turned into a 17-22 deficit. Perkins County set up set point with seven-straight points and took a 25-23 win. 

Neither team held more than a two-point lead in the second set before PCS took a 22-25 loss. 

The third set was just as close. The Plainsmen fell behind by two points, 14-16, and held off match point, 23-24, before taking the set 26-24.

“ It came down to extra points in the set at the end and they had grit, fight and honor for each other to get the job done and the win on the board,” Cole said.

Perkins County returned home Thursday to take on North Platte St. Pat’s.

“I told the girls that they were going to have to focus on serve receive as we knew we would be receiving some tough serves. They overall did pretty well,” Cole said.

The Plainsmen jumped out to an early lead against St. Pat’s (3-4). PCS led 16-12 before being out scored 4-13 down the stretch of the 20-25 loss.

Perkins County struggled to maintain its serve in the second set, only scoring consecutive points in four rotations, before losing 16-25.

PCS flipped the script in the third set, leading 14-13 through the first trip around the court. The Plainsmen held off match point at 21-24 and took a 25-24 lead. Perkins County missed its chance at 26-25 and fought off one more match point before losing 27-29.

“Our serving was just as tough for NPSP and I don’t think that they quite expected what we threw at them during the game. Again, playing scrappy hustle ball. That can be discouraging for teams when they can’t get a kill because the other team keeps digging them and I thought we did that very well,” Cole said, adding Perkins County’s back row was all over the court and it did an exceptional job of keeping that ball up and alive. 

Up next

The week started off Tuesday with a trip to Trenton for a triangular with Hitchcock County (2-4) and Wallace (4-1).

“Just like any other night of ball, we have to show up ready to play like we did this week,” Cole said.

After finishing off the week with practices, PCS will host Arthur County (3-2) Monday. A home triangular with South Platte (2-3) and Paxton (3-1) is scheduled for Sept. 16.

Cole said the team is still working on not having its setters run around quite so much, forcing its hitters to hit out of system balls, which will be fun to watch unfold throughout the season.