Lady Bulldogs battle on the road with Prairie Lady Mustangs; fall short in 5 sets

Despite a tough five-set battle on the hardwood in Prairie last week, the Haxtun Bulldogs suffered a loss to the Lady Mustangs leaving the team 4-5 overall as they head into another week of volleyball action. Haxtun took on Wiggins this Tuesday on the road, details of that match up were not available as of press time.

Prairie took the first set 25-19 but the Lady Bulldogs settled into routine for sets two and three, 25-14 and 25-23. The fourth was a battle to the finish, in extra points, as the Lady Mustangs inched out a 27-25 win. It call came down to the fifth and final where the home team took the win, 15-12 for the five set victory.

As a team the Lady Bulldogs put down 56 kills in the five sets against Prairie. Sophomore Bobbi Starkebaum led the charge with 18 kills. Classmate Maggie Kilgour registered 12 kills followed by junior Megan Walker with nine. The team registered two total blocks led by Jayleigh Bullard at the net.

In the service department, Haxtun tallied 15 aces on the night. Senior Grace Gibson registered nine followed by Walker with three and sophomore Emily Anderson with two. Four Lady Bulldogs served 100 percent including Julia Freeman, Anderson, Cassidy Goddard and Walker. As a team, Haxtun went 96.3 percent from behind the service line.

In the back row on defense, Freeman led in digs with 13. Anderson, the team's back row specialist, tallied 11 digs followed by Walker with 10. On serve receive, Walker registered 34 successful passes to her setter. Anderson put up 19 passed while Freeman and Kilgour followed with 15 and 11, respectively.

In the setters position, Kelsie Hadeen and Starkebaum handled the ball 35 times combined. Hadeen registered 24 sets followed by Starkebaum with 11.

The Lady Bulldogs took on Wiggins at the home of the Lady Tigers Tuesday night. They return to the court on Saturday, Sept. 17 as the team travels to Brush for tournament play beginning at 9 a.m.