The Nemaha Central seventh grade volleyball girls competed in the Big East League Tournament on Saturday, October 12. The tournament was hosted by Holton and the Thunder girls entered the tournament seeded fourth.
The Big East Tournament consists of twelve teams divided into four pools of three teams. The winner from each pool would advance to the tournament bracket. NC opened the day with Holton and Rossville in their pool.
The first match was against the Holton Wildcats. The Thunder team was ready to play and won the first set 25-21. The second set didn’t go so well and they lost 11-25. However, they pumped each other up and won the third set 15-11. This was the first Thunder win in pool play.
Next, they played against the Rossville Bulldogs and demolished them in the first set 25-8. The Thunder's second set went well again as they won 25-14. With the match win, the Thunder team advanced to the tournament bracket.
The four teams that advanced were Jeff West, NC, Silver Lake, and Royal Valley. The Thunder team matched up with Jeff West in the first match of tournament play. The first set of the match was tough and the Thunder lost 13-25. In the next set, the Thunder lost again 7-25.
In the final match for third place, the Thunder played Silver Lake. The Thunder team lost a close first set with a score of 22-25. In the second set, the girls were determined to win but came up short with a score of 18-25. The girls had a good run this season and finished with an overall record of 12-7.
“Overall I think it went pretty well. My favorite part was spending time with my friends and playing volleyball,” said Liv Anderson, a seventh-grade volleyball player.