The Park Hill volleyball team (11-9-1) was on the verge of a sweep over its rivals on Shaye Koski’s historical night, but Park Hill South (7-16) fought back and took the match in five sets on Pink Night on Oct. 6.
Koski entered the night with four kills shy of 1,000 in her career – surpassing that total early in the first set – but her personal accomplishment was overshadowed when the Lady Panthers erased a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2. The Lady Trojans had won the last two matches against Park Hill South, including a road sweep on Sept. 6, but came up short of sweeping their rival this fall.
Park Hill took the opening two sets and Koski earned her 1,000th career kill to give the Lady Trojans an early 9-3 lead in the first set. The match took a short break to announce to the crowd the senior’s accomplishment, and then play continued.
Park Hill won set one 25-19 without ever trailing – and scored the first two points of the ensuing set – but Park Hill South took its first lead of the night when Lady Trojan Ava Daneff hit the ball out-of-bounds to give the Lady Panthers a 5-4 advantage. The Lady Trojans tied the set at 17 and when Koski had a kill to put them up by one, they never trailed again en route to a 25-19 victory in set two.
The third set was tight from the get-go, posting 15 lead changes and 14 ties – including four ties after being knotted up at 20 – with neither squad being able to pull ahead by much. The largest lead of the set was four points when Park Hill South was up 15-11.
After Koski had a spike to tie the game at 20, no team was able to string together more than two straight points. Tatum Kells came up clutch down the stretch for the Lady Panthers, including back-to-back spikes when they trailed 22-20.
The Park Hill South volleyball team celebrates after scoring a point as the Lady Panthers erase a 2-0 deficit against Park Hill and won in five sets on Oct. 6.
With the set tied at 25, the next team to take a 2-point margin would win the set and Park Hill South junior Caroline Wengler scored the go-ahead point with a spike. The Lady Trojans bumped into the net on a hit attempt on the ensuing play to surrender the final point and lost set three 27-25.
Park Hill South took the momentum on the road into the final two sets, forcing a fifth set with a 25-20 victory in set four. The final set went into extra points and the Lady Panthers pulled off the upset with an 18-16 win.
Peyton Liming had 19 kills and Isabel Day had 39 digs, while Emma Kimbrel and Camryn Ludke combined for 57 assists for Park Hill South. Meanwhile, Koski walked away from the match adding to her already impressive resume as the senior has a number of accolades: being a four-year varsity letterman, 2022 Under Armour All-American Volleyball Nominee, senior captain and has already verbally committed to continue her volleyball career at the University of Texas-Tyler.
Park Hill will head to Lee’s Summit North (6-13) on Oct. 13 and host Lee’s Summit (11-2-1) on Oct. 18. Park Hill South will go to Lee’s Summit on Oct. 14 and then compete in the Ozark Grand Slam Invitational on Oct. 14-15.