The Nemaha Central eighth grade volleyball team traveled a bit over an hour to Elwood, home of the Riverside Middle School, for the Big 7 League volleyball tournament. The Thunder headed to the tournament on October 2, 2021, going for the gold. They had played hard all year and were hoping that their skills and practice time paid off. The Thunder went into the tournament as the number five seed.
The Thunder started out the morning by warming up. After they were done warming up, they were prepared to beat the Cyclones. After a rough start, the Thunder lost the first set 26-28. The Thunder picked themselves up to win the second set 25-17. Determined to start the morning strong, NC ended the first match of the day with a close win 17-15. After that thrilling match was behind them, they were ready to compete against Holton.
NC took on the Wildcats without a break between games. The girls couldn’t quite come out on top in the first set losing 21-25. Then, the Thunder took another shot at it and couldn’t quite make it, falling short 19-25. After the loss, the girls were determined to beat Sabetha and make it into the tournament bracket. With that goal in mind, they challenged Sabetha and started off the set with another close battle losing, 24-26. NC pushed hard and came out on top of the Bluejays in the second set, 25-18. Going into the third set, the Thunder team needed the win to move on. After a nail-biting set that came down to the end, the Thunder team came out victorious 16-14.
Now into the tournament bracket, they faced Hiawatha. This game would either put them into the championship or playing for third and fourth place. Another tough matchup led the Thunder to a loss 19-25. The girls picked themselves up to come out with a win over the Red Hawks 25-16. With another third set in place, NC just barely squeaked by Hiawatha 15-13.
Into the championship game, the Thunder team was challenged against the only team they lost to so far in the tournament, the Holton Wildcats. After a long set, NC didn’t come out with the win 19-25. The determination for the gold led them to beat the Wildcats in the second set, 25-23. The championship set didn’t go in favor of the Thunder, leaving the girls with a silver with a loss of 5-15.
The Thunder team was a bit disappointed with the final loss. However, once the silver medal was handed to them, they were content. The girls never thought that they would make it this far. After a tough season, NC went into the tournament as the fifth seed and came out second place. They put in the hard work and effort to accomplish the second place finish.
Nikki Honeyman, the eighth-grade volleyball coach, said, “I was so unbelievably proud of this group, they never gave up. All but one of their matches went 3 games and they won many of their games by just 2 points. There was a lot of fight in these girls today. It was a great way to end the season.”
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