Thunder earn sweep over Mustangs
JON DYKSTRA/THE FORUM
Nodaway Valley sophomore Delilah James smiles after a serve against North Nodaway in Graham on Tuesday.
GRAHAM, Mo. — The future for Nodaway Valley volleyball was on display Tuesday night in Graham during a 25-15, 25-8, 25-8 sweep of North Nodaway.
A trio of sophomores posted big nights with a team-leading nine kills from Gracie Larabee, six digs and two aces from Delilah James, and the usual all-around game from Annalee Livengood. Livengood’s final stat line was 26 assists, 15 digs, four kills and six aces.
“Put it all out there and swing at everything,” Larabee said of her mindset. “Everything is harder with a swing, not a tip or a push. I’m telling myself every time I go up to swing with everything I got and to see how it goes.”
It was a slow start for the Thunder as North Nodaway found its rhythm early on. The Mustangs took an 8-4 lead in the first set on an ace from freshman Zoey Phillips.
“Yesterday, we came out ready to work,” North Nodaway coach Jody Thompson said of Monday’s win over South Harrison. “We knew that they were a beatable team and we came out ready to work. We had some highs and lows, but we were able to battle back after a few points. It was nice to see more consistency yesterday versus today where we struggled. We kept our attitudes better, but our hustle wasn’t there today.”
Nodaway Valley senior Haylee Dawson sparked the resurgence with a tip kill to get herself to the service line where she had a 5-point run. Larabee had back-to-back kills during the run while senior Emalee Wynn added a kill of her own.
“Really just getting our energy up, celebrating the little things and getting our momentum up,” Larabee said of getting the team going after the slow start.
Mustang sophomore Laney Turner ended the run and the Mustangs took a 11-10 lead, but that was the last lead of the set for North Nodaway. Thunder senior Bella Walker retook the lead for the home squad with a kill while Larabee followed with a block and Wynn had an ace.
Larabee had an ace and Chloe Wenger added a kill to extend the lead to 18-12 while Livengood continued to distribute the ball all around. Walker, Livengood and Wenger traded kills to grow the margin to 10. Wynn had the kill to end the first set at 25-15.
“We kinda got out of our heads and got our energy back up,” Wenger said.
In the second set, North Nodaway took a 2-0 lead with an ace by Lily Blane. The Thunder immediately answered with a kill for Walker to get Livengood to the line and start a 10-0 run where Livengood had five aces.
“We had a couple of games where our serving wasn’t fantastic,” Nodaway Valley coach Carrie Livengood said. “We spent a lot of time refocusing and regrouping at practice and making sure that we are doing the fundamentals of serving and doing the little things.”
Nodaway Valley rolled from there with Wynn and Larabee each finishing strong. The set ended with the Thunder winning 25-8.
“Gracie started the season off really strong and then she was out a while with her knee injury,” Carrie Livengood said. “It has just taken a little time to get back and get that confidence back that she had. I saw more of it tonight than I have the last couple games, so I hope that she will keep building on that.”
The third set started with an Annalee Livengood ace and the team surged out to a 7-1 lead. A Larabee kill made it 13-3.
“Our connection is really good,” Larabee said of Livengood. “We are in the gym first thing in the morning working on it, and she does a really good job of getting every ball up to me and putting it in play so I can get a really good swing on it and hit it.”
North Nodaway made a 3-0 run to cut it to 13-6 with Phillips at the service stripe. But that was as close as they got with Dawson getting a kill then reeling off a 6-0 run serving including an ace.
Walker and Dawson had kills late to close out the match with a 25-8 victory.
Walker finished with seven kills while Wynn had six and Wenger had five. Wynn added 12 digs.
“Right now, Gracie and I are our two outsides for our team,” Wenger said. “We’ve been practicing a lot, working on lines and we are trying to get more comfortable with it.”
North Nodaway was led by Addalea Barcus with five kills. Lacy Riley had 14 digs and five assists while Blane had 11 digs and three assists.
North Nodaway returns to the court on Thursday on the road against East Atchison before home matches next week against Maysville on Monday, South Holt on Tuesday and Essex on Thursday.
“We just need a little bit more consistency,” Thompson said. “We are a little bit of a roller coaster, some highs and lows. Consistency is going to be our big practice workout for the rest of the season.”
Nodaway Valley will be on the road Thursday at South Holt and Monday at South Harrison.
“We are just going to keep working on the small things,” Wenger said. “We have not reached our peak yet. We are hoping to reach our peak at districts.”
Nodaway Valley 3, Union Star 0
The Thunder rolled to a 25-6, 25-5, 25-11 sweep in Union Star last Thursday.
Annalee Livengood had 26 assists, nine aces and nine digs. Chloe Wenger led the team with 10 kills.
Nodaway-Holt Tournament
The Thunder finished third in the Nodaway-Holt Tournament on Saturday in Graham and Maitland.
In the first match, they took a 25-22, 25-11 win over East Atchison then added a 25-13, 25-13 win over Union Star.
St. Joseph Christian handed the Thunder their lone loss of the tournament with a 25-11, 25-11 win. But the Thunder bounced back for a 25-19, 25-11 win over South Holt to take third.
Annalee Livengood finished the tournament with 51 assists, 25 digs, 10 kills and eight aces. Gracie Larabee had 14 kills, six aces and nine digs.
Bella Walker had 19 kills and four blocks while Chloe Wenger had 13 kills and Hadley Fast had 16 digs. Delilah James added three aces and 21 digs.
Rock Port 3, North Nodaway 0
Lacy Riley had 18 digs and three assists in last Thursday’s loss to Rock Port for North Nodaway.
Lily Blane added three kills and 12 digs with Addalea Barcus having two kills and 12 digs.
The game scores were 25-9, 25-5 and 25-22.
North Nodaway 3, South Harrison 1
Lily Blane helped lead North Nodaway to a 4-set victory over South Harrison on Monday. Blane had eight aces, 14 digs and seven assists.
The game scores were 25-23, 25-21, 22-25 and 25-20.
Lacy Riley added eight assists, four aces and 21 digs while Addalea Barcus had 13 digs, nine kills and five aces.
