The Fort Calhoun volleyball team closed out its regular season with back-to-back triangular wins against Wisner-Pilger and Logan View/Scribner-Snyder on Thursday.
The home victories pushed the Pioneers' season record to 14-10 as they've won nine of their last 11 matches.
“I think we've had fun the whole time,” FCHS senior Ellie Lienemann said. “I think that's what keeps encouraging us to keep going out there and trying our best.”
Classmate Rianna Wells, a setter, also commented on the hot finish.
“It was really good to just end the official season with two big wins, especially at home,” she said. “It means everything. I've been here for four years and it just means a lot.”
Fort Calhoun won its first match against Wisner-Pilger 2-1, earning the victory by 25-22, 25-27 and 25-18 scores. Senior Megan Johnson clinched the positive result, notching a kill and then recording a service ace to cap the third.
The serve was a quick, effective way to score match point.
“It makes it so much easier,” Johnson said, adding that it was her team's support that led her to success.
Before the first-set finish, though, FCHS worked to a 17-14 lead against the Gators. Lienemann found success hitting from the left side, earning three kills as the Pioneers went from 11 to 16 points.
An Alivia Cullen kill and back-to-back Johnson aces later led to a 24-18 home advantage before the Pioneers finally won by three.
Coach James Slie's team then fell behind 23-19 during the second set, but battled back to make it interesting for Wisner-Pilger. McKenna Greenwell and Johnson notched aces, while Cullen had two kills, but the Gators forced the third set with a 27-25 victory.
Freshman Raegen Wells capped a long volley — extended when Greenwell dove for a ball in the back row — to put the Pioneers out ahead 1-0 in the third. From there, Cullen dominated play at the net, notching several kills off of Rianna Wells sets.
Fort Calhoun went on to lead the third 19-12 on Cullen's ace and closed it out with another by Johnson.
Later, during a 2-0 win against Logan View, the Pioneers gave up the first point of the first set, but led it from there on out. Cullen and Lienemann traded kills before senior Kaitlin Smith scored on back-to-back swings to push FCHS' lead to 22-14.
Lienemann notched back-to-back aces before Grace Genoways' kill finished off the set in the Pioneers' favor.
The Fort Calhoun student section grew — in number and in volume — as the second set got underway with the junior varsity triangular elsewhere at FCHS ending. The Pioneers took advantage, building a early 6-3 lead earned on Olivia Quinlan's kill to the middle of the floor on the LVSS side.
The home team's advantage grew further to 13-5 on Lienemann's second-straight ace and morphed into the 25-13 victory.
“We have a hard time bringing our chemistry onto the court,” Cullen said. “But tonight we did that.”
The 2-0 finish meant a lot to Fort Calhoun's varsity senior group, which includes Smith, Johnson, Greenwell, Cullen, Rianna Wells, Lienemann and student manager Hannah Fitzgerald.
“It means starting from freshman year and working up together as best friends,” Smith said, recapping her emotions. The seniors embraced with teary eyes after closing out their home schedule.
“The connection all of us have — I don't want to get rid of it,” Greenwell said. “This is my home. They're my family and leaving them makes me want to cry.”
Seniors Abigail Ryan, Kaylee Kirby and Brittany Peterson also contributed to coach Slie's Fort Calhoun volleyball program in 2020. The Pioneers started subdistrict play Monday. Updates can be found online at enterprisepub.com/sports.
