The Superior Express -

Superior opened Southern Nebraska Conference play Monday, hosting Fairbury. Fairbury defeated Heatland in the bunny bracket game before they took on Superior.

Coach Blevins commented, “The Wildcats showed up well after a two-week quarantine to start the conference tournament against Fairbury. Fairbury played the Cats in four tight sets in mid-September. The Lady Cats definitely showed some strengths and some weaknesses, Monday night. Defense made some nice improvements with Sierra Blackburn and Ella Gardner picking up hard driven shots to the right back corner. Shayla Meyer and Laci Kirchhoff both tallied six digs each and Atlee Kobza led the team with eight. Serving was the weakness of the Cats, Monday night. Eleven serving errors in only two sets cut back the momentum a number of times throughout the night.” Coach Blevins is confident the team is mentally tough and would be ready for Centennial on Tuesday night. The winner of that match plays at 7 p.m., Thursday, for the conference championship.

Scoring statistics were 18 to 25 and 25 to 27.

Cailyn Barry: five kills of six spikes, one ace of 12 serves, one block.

Alexa Cox: no stats.

Laci Kirchhoff: nine serves, six digs, two serve receives.

Sierra Blackburn: one kill of nine spikes, three serves, four digs, 13 assists of 35 sets, three serve receives. Neah McMeen: two serves.

Ella Gardner: one kill of three spikes, two aces of 11 serves, four blocks, four digs, 12 assists of 32 sets.

Emma Henderson: one ace of nine serves, three digs.

Shayla Meyer: 19 kills of 33 spikes, four serves, four blocks, six digs, two assists of three sets, 14 serve receives. Atlee Kobza: one kill of three spikes, one serve, eight digs, one set, 16 serve receives.