MORAN — The Yates Center Wildcats remain undefeated in the Three Rivers League, defeating Marmaton Valley, Chetopa and non-conference opponent Eureka at Tuesday’s MVHS Quad.
The Wildcats ended the night with two-set sweeps to push their overall record to 7-4 and their TRL record to 5-0.
“It’s amazing, because we still have a player out and everybody had to switch it up a little bit,” Yates Center coach Carrie Cummings said.
“Everybody stepped up big to fill the roles we asked them to play. We had a couple of substitutes come in and they played great whether it was serving, passing or setting. It was awesome.”
Yates Center opened the night with a dominating 25-9, 25-17 victory over the Chetopa Hornets.
As became a theme Tuesday night, Coach Cummings dug deep with substitutions.
With no junior varsity games Tuesday, Cummings used the back half of the second set to give her younger players varsity experience.
“Just in case something happens, you never know, so you want them in a varsity game getting a varsity feel,” Cummings said. “The tenseness, the nervousness goes away the next time they come in and this was a good night to do that.”
Host Marmaton Valley presented a bit more of a problem for Yates Center.
The Marmaton Valley Wildcats did not go quietly despite falling in the first set 25-15.
In the second set, a tip by junior outside hitter Adisyn Pritchard tied the contest 11-11.
Kills by YC sophomore hitter Whitley Shaffer and senior outside hitter Cayten Cummings helped give Yates Center some distance. Senior outside hitter Jayda Rice set up match point with a kill landing on the opposite side of the court. Moments later, Cummings struck hard for a game-winning spike for a 25-18 win.
Eureka proved the most difficult for Yates Center, and at one point the Wildcats had to rally from a significant first-set deficit to pull off the 25-22 win.
They took the second set with a bit more ease 25-14 but Coach Cummings believes weathering that early storm was a benefit.
“We had to come back in that first set, and we did it,” Cummings said. “There were great sets by Tristy [Steele, sophomore] and that was her first time starting a varsity match as setter. She has great hands and she hustles for the ball. We still have to get those little transition things worked out, but she put it right where Cayten needed it and she put it down. Jayda also had some good hits when we needed them.”
As for Marmaton Valley, just a few weeks into the season and they are already a third of the way to last year’s win total after defeating Chetopa in three sets.
