The South Loup volleyball team (2-3) battled two tough Class C1 teams at home last week and came up short in both games, falling to Kearney Catholic 0-3 and Gothenburg 0-3.

On Tuesday, Sept. 6, the Bobcats hosted the Kearney Catholic Stars (5-0) in Callaway for the first game of the season for reserve and JV teams and a thrilling three-set loss for the varsity team.

In set one, the Bobcats had a strong start against the Stars, until a service error gave the KCHS the upper hand and they ran away with it, bringing the score 9-15.

Midway through the first set, a kill from senior Abby Stallbaumer renewed the Bobcat’s energy and they closed the score gap to two points, 15-17.

Another service error allowed KCHS to score 4 more points, until Ava Pandorf came to the service line and scored four unanswered points to tie the set at 21-21.

Unfortunately the Stars pulled ahead and the final score in the first set was 22-25.

Set two was all the Stars, with a final score of 11-25 and very few fireworks. Charli Vickers had a kill that gave the Bobcats the momentum to score two unanswered, but Kearney Catholic dominated on defense to shut down most every attempt by the Bobcats to score.

The third set was also a slow start for South Loup with KCHS outsourcing them 9-14 before a block by Stallbaumer allowed them to pull ahead 15-14, and following each team traded points back and forth for a final of 25-27.

Stallbaumer led the Bobcats with 7 kills and 7 blocks; Pandorf had 43 digs and 20 serve receives; and Talli Martin had 65 sets with 8 sets resulting in a kill.

The junior varsity team lost in two sets, 15-25 and 11-25; and the reserve team also lost in two sets, 8-25 and 11-25.

Gothenburg Lady Swedes (4-0) traveled to Arnold on Thursday and came up with a win in 3 sets against the Lady Bobcats: 17-25, 13-25, 15-25.

From the first whistle, the Swedes dominated the court, scoring 8 unanswered points early in the first set until the Bobcats were able to score a single point.

Gothenburg continued to roll over South Loup, easily taking all three sets with little pushback.

Senior Talli Martin had 17 serves with no errors and three aces; Pandorf only had 12 digs, but picked up 25 serve receives. Lauryn Johnson had 4 kills and 8 serve attempts.

The scores for the reserve and junior varsity games against Gothenburg were not immediately available.