Courier photos by Amanda Wehnes

In a week with ups and downs and the festivities of homecoming tiring them out, the South Loup Lady Bobcat volleyball team extended their winning streak to eight consecutive games, before losing two straight in Sutherland on Saturday.

Individual statistics for this week were not available by press time.

Tuesday brought an easy win 2-0 over Elm Creek in Callaway. The Lady Bobcats stayed ahead both games, with the threat of a loss never in sight. The final score of each set was 25-13 and 25-19.

The second of Tuesday’s game against Anselmo-Merna was quite a thriller with the Coyotes matching the Bobcats every point, but falling short to give South Loup another win, 2-0. It wasn’t until the very end of the first set that the Bobcats were able to pull ahead and win 25-23. The second set was nearly identical to the first - neither team was able to pull away a clear lead, matching each other point-for-point until the Bobcats pulled away 30-28 to get the win.

Saturday the Bobcats traveled to Sutherland for the annual Sailors Tournament, where they placed fourth out of eight teams.

Their first set against Sutherland started off slow with the Bobcats trailing 3-9, but after fighting back and digging in deep, South Loup pulled off a 25-21 win. The second set was more lopsided with the Sailors never pulling ahead and giving the Bobcats the 25-20 win.

The second game of the day against the Roughriders of Southwest High School (Bartley) was a struggle for the Bobcats as they never seemed to find their footing or a chance to lead on the scoreboard and dropped their winning streak 0-2. In set one, the Bobcats were down 0-11 before a service error by Southwest led to a South Loup point. The score of the first set was 12-25. The second set wasn’t as dominated by Southwest, but the Bobcats still never found the opportunity to score often enough and lost 14-25.

The final game of the day was against the Class C1 Chase County (Imperial) Longhorns, led by senior powerhouse Bryn McNair. The Longhorns were able to stop the Bobcats 2-0 with strong net presence and better blocking and hitting. The final scores were 18-25 and 14-25.

The JV traveled to Litchfield last Monday for a triangular with Ansley/Litchfield and Broken Bow. The Lady Bobcats lost to Broken Bow 18-25 and 19-25. The reserve team played Ansley/Litchfield and lost 18-25 and 6-25.

At home on Tuesday, the Lady Bobcat JV squad lost to Elm Creek 2-1 with scores of 26-24, 15-25, and 19-25.Also on Tuesday, the Coyotes of Anselmo-Merna were downed by the JV girls 2-0 with scores of 25-19 and 25-23.

The JV team traveled to Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte for a tournament on Monday, but the scores were not immediately available.

Varsity takes on Sandhills Valley and Twin Loup in a triangular on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Callaway.