By james art As much as Bergan volleyball wanted to enjoy its final home game of the regular season, Tuesday night’s matchup with Weep Water went by quickly.
The Knights were able to defeat the Indians 3-0 (25-16, 25-15, 25-16).
“We’ve come off some tough games, played a lot of C-1 and ranked teams and played them really well, but a loss is a loss, so it hurt their morale a little bit,” Bergan coach Jessica Schuyler said.
The Knights did not act like a team with bruised confidence in Tuesday night’s game, jumping out to early leads in all three sets.
Sophomore Peyton Langhorst led Bergan with 16 kills and senior Claire Mlnarik added 14 to pace the Bergan attack.
Mlnarik added four of the Knights’ 10 ace serves on the night, including the late-game ace for the final point of the third set.
“We can always expect (Mlnarik) to lift people up and she’s going to be really hard to replace,” Schuyler said.
Bergan honored her four seniors — Mlnarik, Nora Pentel, Madison Schmidt and Allison Wolfe — after the game.
“They just take care of each other and they love each other and they love each other, so to come in and be a part of something like that, not only leading it, but being one of them, was super cool,” Schuyler said.
The win snapped a four-game losing streak for Bergan – all ranked C-1 schools.
Losses to No. 10 Omaha Concordia ended the streak in addition to a 2-1 loss to No. 3 Kearney Catholic after taking the first set and a 2-0 loss to No. 4 Columbus Scotus.
“Knowing that they can come out and compete with those teams and any team, I think, let them know that we still have a chance to go on this season,” Schuyler said.
This is the first year of regional subdistricts in C-2 and C-1. The state is divided by the NSAA into four regions with one westernmost region and three other regions.
The three eastern regions will be subdivided by serpentine arrangement based on wildcard points with three subregions per region.
The 10 subdistrict winners and six wildcards will advance to the district finals.
Bergan ranks 15th in the wildcard standings.
No official sub-district groups have been announced yet.