West Platte junior Arianna Nower had 24 kills in the 5-set loss to East Buchanan on Sept. 14.
WESTON – The West Platte volleyball team (7-3) was riding a 5-match winning streak and on the verge of earning a huge upset victory over KCI and Class 2 District 16 rival East Buchanan (12-0) on Sept. 14.
West Platte and East Buchanan know each other well, having met in two straight district championships and now 10 total times since 2021. Ahead of the most recent meeting, the Lady Blue Jays had failed to come up with a win in the last eight matchups – which includes a tie in a 2-set pool play game in the 2022 KCI Tournament.
With high stakes on the line for the conference and the postseason, West Platte came out strong and won the first two sets. Both were competitive as the Lady Blue Jays won by scores of 25-22 and 25-21.
Set three was tight towards the end – being tied at 20 – and West Platte only needed one more set victory to take the match. East Buchanan took control down the line and was up 24-22 when Arianna Nower had back-to-back kills to tie it at 24.
West Platte served the next ball out-of-bounds to put East Buchanan back in front with a game-point situation. The Lady Bulldogs pulled off the 26-24 win with an ace as there was a miscommunication between Avery Holmes and Nower on the back line following the serve and the ball hit the ground.
East Buchanan set the tone for set three by scoring the first 10 points en route to tying the match with a 25-6 triumph. With set five being a winner-take-all to 15 points, the match went down to the wire.
West Platte was in control early, up 10-5, but didn’t score another point after leading 12-9. The Lady Bulldogs had a walk-off ace to win the fifth set 15-12, and the Lady Blue Jays lost their first home match in 346 days.
Leading West Platte in scoring was Nower with 24 kills, many of which came from passes by Maddie McMillan who dished out 35 assists. Holmes had 28 digs and three aces, while Klaira Groom finished with three blocks.
Since taking third place in the KCI Tournament, West Platte had three straight sweeps and a 5-set win. The Lady Blue Jays took down Lafayette County (4-8) on Sept. 11.
West Platte will look to bounce back in a road KCI matchup with Lathrop (7-5-1) on Sept. 21 and then head to the 22nd Midway Tournament on Sept. 23.