Lady Wildcats earn 3rd regional seed

Fleming's Lady Wildcats have earned the third place spot moving into post-season volleyball action. The team completed the regular season with a sweep over Caliche last Friday to finish at 18-5 overall.

Fleming went undefeated in the North Central League this season, giving them the top spot among those five teams. Sitting above them in the 24-team regional bracket are Merino and Idalia.

The Lady Wildcats cruised to a three-set victory last week on the road at Caliche, 25-17, 25-18 and 25-18.

Junior Ashley Bornhoft topped her overall season averages at the net in both kills and blocks. Fifteen kills in the contest put her at a five kill per set average for the night. She also put up two solo blocks and three assisted blocks for five total or an average of 1.7 per set. Bornhoft led her team in both categories.

Junior Quincy Stull followed in the kill column with seven total. Junior Ciana Lousberg put four on the floor, sophomore Hadley Stull added three and sophomore Hayley Chamberlain added one.

Lousberg followed Bornhoft in the defensive category of blocking. She put up three assisted blocks for the night. Senior Kylie Bretz-Hoskins and Hadley Stull added one block apiece.

The setting duo of Lousberg and Chamberlain assisted with 15 and 13 sets, respectively. The pair also contributed top numbers from behind the serving line. Chamberlain served over three ace; Lousberg two.

Freshman Madie Johnson, along with Hadley Stull, also served two aces in the contest. Hadley Stull served for 11 points averaging over 93 percent on 15 serves. Junior Brooke Schaefer, Bretz-Hoskins and Johnson each served 100 percent on seven attempts.

Chamberlain led the group's defensive efforts from the back row with 11 digs. Lousberg and Schaefer followed that up with eight and seven digs, respectively.

Schaefer, who serves as the team's Libero, led on serve-receive with 29 passes. She committed no errors in the serve-receive category. Hadley Stull followed with 13 passes.

Fleming is set to host 22nd ranked Lone Star on Friday, Nov. 8 at 6 p.m. for a one-match regional showing. The winner of that match will advance to the 1A State Tournament slated to begin on Thursday, Nov. 14 at the Denver Coliseum. The two teams met in late-September when Fleming swept on their home court.

The Wildcats have also met up with the first and second ranked teams in the State. Top-ranked Merino accounts for two of Fleming's five losses this season. The Lady Rams defeated the Lady Wildcats in August and in late-October. Those matches closed at 3-1 and 3-0, respectively. Fleming swept second-ranked Idalia a couple weeks ago.