Category Archives: Volleyball

The Lady Hawks suffered a tough loss on their Homecoming night, losing to Crawford for the first time of the season. Although the Hawk girls have beaten the Rams twice before this year, they could not manage to pull through on Thursday night. The game went 5 sets; the Hawks winning the first and third sets with scores of 25-19 and 25-22. Crawford won the second, fourth, and final sets with scores of 25-11, 25-22, and 15-9.

Steph Tlustos and Cydney Jancik led the Lady Hawks with 11 points each, followed by Whitney Heiting with 8 points, and Sydney Tlustos with 7.  Cydney Jancik also headed off the ace serves, followed by the Tlustos sisters, senior Steph and freshman Sydney, with 7 aces each. Steph Tlustos was the big hitter of the night, scoring 9 kills against the Lady Rams. She was flanked by Whitney Heiting with 7 kills, and Cydney Jancik with 6. The Hay Springs’ girls dug up quite a few Crawford balls; Whitney Heiting leading the team’s digs with 7, trailed by Kate Roberts and Katrena Ryan with 5 digs a piece, and Steph Tlustos and Cydney Jancik, each with 4.  The high blocker for the Hawks was Kate Roberts with 4 blocks against the Rams. Whitney Heiting and Jen Scherbarth each added 2 blocks against their opponents. The senior setters racked up the assists; Steph Tlustos leading with 14 and Jesse Heiting following right behind with 10.

At the end of the night, the Hay Springs Lady Hawks left the gym with a winning record of 11-9. The Hawks play next in Sioux County, for Panhandle Conference. The other teams in the Conference are Morrill, Crawford, Hemingford, Sioux County, and Edgemont.

Game from 10/7 has been rescheduled for 10/14. Start time 6:30 pm in Gordon.  Leave time 5pm.

On Saturday, September 21, the Lady Hawks traveled to the Hemingford Tournament. The Lady Hawks faced off against the Hyannis Longhorns in the third game of the day, starting off pool play. The Lady Hawks came out ready to play in the first set, and won 26-24. However, the Lady Hawks lost some fire and couldn’t finish the game, dropping the last two sets 10-25 and 18-25. Whitney Heiting had 5 kills, 2 blocks, and 3 aces for the Lady Hawks. Jesse Heiting had 12 assists and 3 aces. Steph Tlustos had 3 aces, 2 kills, and 9 assists, and Kate Roberts added 6 blocks.

After a one-game wait, the Lady Hawks went up against the Sioux County Warriors in their second game of pool play, and came out on top after three sets. The Warriors took the first set, with a score of 21-25, and the Lady Hawks won the next two sets, 25-23, and 25-20. For the Lady Hawks, Steph Tlustos had 6 aces, 9 points, 4 kills, and 8 assists. Whitney Heiting had 5 kills, 9 digs, 3 aces, and 8 service points. Jesse Heiting added 9 assists and 5 aces. Kate Roberts added 3 blocks.

Later in the day, the Lady Hawks played against the Morrill Lions in the third-place game. They swept by Morrill in two sets, winning 25-19, and 25-18. Whitney Heiting led the way with 7 kills, 3 aces, 6 points, and 5 digs. Cydney Jancik had 5 kills, 8 digs, and 4 aces. Steph Tlustos has 6 assists and 4 digs.

The Lady Hawks are back in action Thursday, and are hosting Mitchell and Leyton in a triangular. They play Mitchell first at 2:30. The Lady Hawks are also traveling to the Crawford Quad this Saturday, where they face off against Banner County at 9 a.m., the first game of the day.

The Hay Springs volleyball team took on 11 sets within 24 hours this weekend, starting with a win against the Edgemont Moguls on the evening of Friday the 13^th. The game was a nail biter; it went to 5 sets! The Hawks came out strong in the first two sets, with scores of 25-16 and 25-22, but couldn’t keep it together for the third and fourth, when they were outscored 20-25 and 13-25.  The final set was won by Hay Springs with a score of 17-15. Leading the Lady Hawks in points was Kate Roberts with 13, who also served 7 aces. Jesse Heiting, Whitney Heiting, and Cydney Jancik each contributed 8 points to the game. Whitney also contributed 5 aces and 13 kills, while Jesse had 3 aces and 16 assists. Cydney served 4 aces and had 6 kills and 5 digs. Stephanie Tlustos also had 16 assists and hammered down 7 kills in the Edgemont game.

The volleyball girls woke up bright and early the next morning to play St. Paul, a C1 school at the Gordon Tournament.  The Lady Hawks were defeated by St. Paul 8-25 and 11-25, and the leading stats were held by Whitney Heiting and Jesse Heiting, who each contributed 2 points to the sets and Kate Roberts, who put down 2 kills.

Shortly after, the Hawks took on the Rams from Crawford and defeated them without trouble in 2 sets. Stephanie Tlustos led the varsity girls with 12 points and 13 aces, followed closely by Kate Roberts with 11 points, 4 aces and 4 blocks. Jesse Heiting commanded the assists with 5, and also contributed 3 kills. Whitney Heiting likewise had 3 kills, along with 9 points and 6 ace serves and Cydney Jancik contributed 10 digs to the Crawford game. After the high from defeating Crawford, the defeat by the Hemingford Bobcats was a buzz-kill with scores of 17-25 and 21-25. The leading scorer for Hay Springs was Jen Scherbarth, with 6 points. Following behind with 4 points was Kate Roberts, who also added 2 aces, 4 kills, 3 digs, and 2 blocks. Steph Tlustos had 4 kills as well, along with 8 assists.

The Lady Hawks came into the tournament with a record of 4-0 and left with a record of 5-2. The Hawks are scheduled to compete in the Hemingford Tournament on Saturday, September 21.

The Lady Hawks had a victorious start to their season at home against the Oelrichs Lady Tigers on Saturday, September 7. It was a close game that went to five sets. The score of the game was 22-25, 25-20, 25-15, 19-25, and 15-10. Leading the way for the Lady Hawks, Kate Roberts had 14 points, 4 aces, 7 blocks, and 9 kills. Whitney Heiting added 11 points and 4 aces. Steph Tlustos had 18 assists and Cydney Jancik had 9 digs. When asked about the game, Coach Bila said, “We came in underestimating Oelrichs, who had some great servers that made us work hard to earn every point.”

The Lady Hawks were back in action on Tuesday, September 10, when they traveled to Harrisburg to play Banner County and Hemingford in a triangular. The Lady Hawks played Banner County first, and won easily in straight sets, 25-14 and 25-9. Pacing the Lady Hawks was Cydney Jancik with 12 points, 4 aces, and 6 kills. Whitney Heiting had 12 points, 3 aces, and 6 kills, and Steph Tlustos added 12 assists. The second game of the evening was Hay Springs against Hemingford. The Lady Hawks came out with a high energy level and never looked back, beating the Lady Bobcats in two sets, 25-21, 25-17, and bringing their record to 3-0. Mrs. Bila said, “The girls played really hard and we kept a high level of intensity and enthusiasm”. Whitney Heiting led the way with 9 points, 3 aces, and 9 kills. Steph Tlustos and Jesse Heiting had 9 assists each.

The Lady Hawks are back in action Friday, September 13 against Edgemont at home. The game will start at 6 p.m. They will also travel to the Gordon-Rushville Invitational on Saturday, and their first game is against St. Paul at 8 a.m.

I am super excited for this year’s season.  This is my first year coaching Volleyball in Hay Springs and I am seeing talent where I didn’t expect it.  This will be a season of change for the Lady Hawks.  We graduated several starters last year, so you will be seeing a revamped roster and system change.  I am extremely optimistic that the returnees and a promising transfer senior can develop into a competitive team.

A season of change will be the theme this year.  The girls are not only adjusting to a new coach but new roles as well.  I have setters who can hit and hitters who can set.  If we can capitalize on this versatility you will see some surprising plays, making for exciting volleyball for the fans.

While the Lady Hawks will miss last year’s seniors, the sophomores are showing a lot of promise on the court and will help fill the void.  Leadership will be coming from returning starters Beth Roberts and Michaela Metcalf along with new student Kodee Muhr, a senior from Harrisburg.   Kodee will be a great asset to the set/hit combo of Roberts and Metcalf.   Another plus point will be junior Stephanie Tlustos who can also step in as a setter or hitter.

The flexibility on our team is also one of the challenges we face.  We will need to utilize the talent wisely and efficiently.  The girls are also going to be working hard on back row play.  In a league as strong as Panhandle Conference, defense will be the name of the game.  We certainly have the ability to be a factor on the defensive end.  At the same time, we are young and we will take some hits; but our goal is to work towards being a competitive team.

Coach Binger