It looks like the cut season C will definitely be short for the Yuma High School volleyball team.
The Indians, 4-8 in total, are in 35th place in the Class 2A Rating Percentage Index (as of Monday afternoon) and go into the last two games of the regular season.
They host Brush today, April 22nd, and then travel to Limon on Friday to wrap up COVID-hit Season C.
Yuma, who fails to complete the postseason with 24 teams, may not be completely lost yet. It’s been a priority lately – the YHS girls’ basketball team had a similar record at the end of their 14-game season B, losing their last two regular season games, but somehow ended up 22nd in the final standings and had two before that Losing trouble in the quarterfinals.
However, the odds against the volleyball tribe seem even greater even if they win their last two games. The Indians are further from the top 24 and their last two opponents aren’t doing much to improve their RPI, even if Yuma wins both games.
Brush started this week with 3-8 overall and 46th in the 3A RPI. Limon, who starts 5-6 this week, is the only team with a record loss in the top 24 of the 2A-RPI and is in 14th place thanks to an opponent’s win percentage of 0.740, the highest of any 2A team.
Taylor Law came out of the back row during Actin at The Pit last week. (Dave Gustafson)
Yuma is second in the OWP category with 0.608.
The Lower Platte Activities Association’s Wiggins and Sedgwick Counties rank first and second on the 2A RPI, and Holyoke is number 17. Merino is number 7 among the LPAA’s 1A schools.
Could this OWF help push the Indians into the regional 24-team field like it did for the girls’ basketball team?
“As we learned from basketball, it is possible that we could sneak in, but I think the chances of that are slim,” said coach Jenny Noble. “We’d have to win both games to get a shot. We’re about 35th on all of the polls now, so we just have to see. “
Merino, Wiggins and Sedgwick Counties finished the LPAA regular season title 7-1. Holyoke, Yuma, and Wray have also finished LPAA games, finishing with 5-3, 3-5, and 1-7 points, respectively. Akron, Haxtun (both 2-5) and Caliche (0-6) all showed that there were LPAA matches left this week.
Noble said she wasn’t sure how the three-way tie at the top would be handled to determine a league champion.
The Indians completed their LPAA schedule last Friday when they hosted Merino and Akron for a triangle, losing to the former, and defeating the latter.
Caddis Robinson had a big match in The Pit last Friday when he beat Akron. (Dave Gustafson) Yuma faced the Merino Rams first, losing in four sets, 27-25, 19-25, 10-25, 16-25.
The Indians took an early lead against Merino in the first set only to see the Rams fight back for the lead. However, Yuma continued to compete and eventually took an exciting two-point win.
Failing to keep it up, however, the Indians struggled to match the clout of Merinos Taysa Conger, a 6-foot junior who dominated the net with numerous booming kills. (Your final stats for the match have not been released by Merino.)
Even so, Yuma scored seven goals in a row and took the lead 13-12 in the second set. The Indians then quickly fell behind 14-18 and were never able to recover.
They scored the first three points in the third set, but Merino took a 10-0 lead and the Indians never got closer than five points the rest of the way. Yuma fell back 3-9 in the fourth set, struggled a little 8-13, but Merino scored the next four points and drove from there.
“After winning the first set against Merino, I was definitely hoping that we could build on that momentum in the future,” said Noble. “Set two wasn’t bad, but we had eight deserved points and 15 easy mistakes. Set three consisted of two earned points and 12 free mistakes, and set four consisted of five earned points and 15 free mistakes. You won’t win sets or matches on these types of numbers. It’s hard to understand, especially after we had some pretty good moments in the first sentence. We just don’t have stamina. “
Elle Roth had 14 kills for the Indians, Ema Richardson seven, Caddis Robinson five, Mia Dischner four and Meidi Reyes two. Lea Richardson had 28 hiring assistants. Roth and Taylor Law had 18 and 10 digs, respectively. Dischner was 17-17 and served with an ace, Roth 12-13 with an ace, Robinson 11-12, E. Richardson 11-11 with an ace, L. Richardson 8-9 with an ace, Reyes 5-5 with one Ace and Lyndsey Mekelburg 3-3.
Mia Dischner wants to kill in The Pit in the victory over Akron last Friday. (Dave Gustafson)
Merino sent Akron in the next game, then the Rams of Akron faced the Indians.
Yuma had some tense moments but took the win in four sets, 25-20, 20-25, 25-16 and 25-22.
The first set was close all the way, but thanks to a noisy student division enjoying being back at The Pit on Level Green, the Indians scored four of the last five and ended up winning Robinson’s killing.
Yuma dropped 6-2 in the second set and fought back to take the lead for 13-11 and 17-14. However, Akron scored the next five points and forced a Yuma timeout. The Indians reached 20-21, but the Rams scored the final four points for victory.
The Indians took the lead 8: 1, 10: 2 and 15: 5 in the third set, but made one of their patented cold spells when the WashCo girls got 15:14. Yuma regained control, however, and one Roth ace made it 21-16. The set ended with a great dig by Jayci Mekelburg, who fell on Akron’s side of the net in the 25:16 win.
It seemed the match could go to a fifth set as the Indians fell behind 2-8 in the fourth set. However, the Indians turned the tables with nine straight points and showed some big hits from Robinson with L. Richardson as a serve. However, this bunch never makes it easy to get behind at 14:17 to take the lead again at 19:17. Dischner’s serve finally closes the set and wins by three points.
“The Akron match was a struggle, but we put together some pretty decent rallies and we had a great crowd that helped us too,” said Noble. “Again, too many casual mistakes made it difficult to dominate the entire game, but hey, it was a much needed win.”
Robinson, a freshman, had her best match of the season and ended with 14 outside kills, while E. Richardson and Roth had eight, four from Dischner, three from L richardson and two from J. Mekelburg. L. Richardson had 28 assists. Yuma served on a 93.6 percent clip with 15 aces. Roth was 24-24 with four aces, L. Richardson 20-20 with three aces, Dischner 18-23 with four aces, Robinson 13-13 with three aces, Reyes 7-8 with one ace, and E. Richardson 6-7. Roth had received 34 Digs, Robinson 19 and L. Richardson 18. J. Mekelburg and Robinson led on the serve.
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