West Platte’s bench cheers after a big play in the Lady Blue Jays’ 4-set loss to Bishop LeBlond on Oct. 3.
ST. JOSEPH – Being tasked with taking on one of the top volleyball teams in Class 2, West Platte (15-7-3) stole set two before eventually falling in four sets to Bishop LeBlond (19-4) on Oct. 3.
This was a big game with postseason implications, as both squads will be in the Class 2 District 16 Tournament, before the seedings were released. Now that they’ve been confirmed, LeBlond with be the No. 1 seed and West Platte is set to be the No. 3 seed.
The Lady Blue Jays kept it close in the first and third sets – scoring 18 and 17, respectively – but dropped both. West Platte won set two 25-23 and the match was decided with a 25-13 win by LeBlond in the fourth set.
Arianna Nower had 23 kills and Madison McMillan dished out 37 assists in the match. Klaira Groom finished with 14 kills and Avery Holmes ended with a team-high 25 digs.
West Platte bounced back with a sweep over Plattsburg (11-11-1) on Oct. 5, moving to 4-1 in conference play. Nower surpassed 200 career aces on the day, having four in the match.
Since then, West Platte went 1-1-2 in the competitive Sherwood Invitational on Oct. 7. The Lady Blue Jays tied with Northland Christian (14-13-2) and Sherwood (15-7-3), while beating Lakeland (1-14) and losing 2-0 to Appleton City with Monstrose (24-5-2) in the last match.
West Platte will end the regular season with a KCI matchup with Lawson (15-8-1) on Oct. 12. The Lady Blue Jays will open up postseason play against Northland Christian at Mid-Buchanan High School on Oct. 18 at 6 p.m.