Lady Cards Kick off Season with Wins

WAITSBURG – The Waitsburg Lady Cardinals were full of spunk and sass when The Times joined them for a team dinner following their Sept. 3 practice. When asked what they planned to focus on this year, the answer was simple and optimistic. "Win everything!"

If their performance at Saturday's jamboree in Kahlotus is a season indicator, they may not win "everything," but they're off to a good start.

The Cardinals scrimmaged against five teams and walked away with four wins. With only seven girls suited up, the Cards racked up wins against Prescott, Connell #2, Connell #1, and Lacrosse/Washtucna. The only loss was against Tri Cities Prep.

"They did a great job. They were competitive against a very good team from Tri-Cities Prep," said Coach Angie Potts, who commented that several members of the TCP team play volleyball throughout the year.

With the dissolution of the Waitsburg-Prescott combine, the girls said they miss their former Prescott teammates, especially Athziry Amezcua, who is a senior this year. Smaller numbers have also called for some creativity in fielding both a Waitsburg JV and varsity team.

With a total of 17 players turned out for the season, Waitsburg will break from tradition and play varsity games first this year. Then, any varsity players who still have play time available (a player can play five sets a night), will suit up for the JV game.

"I'm not putting any seniors on JV since that's the team that we need to build. It needs to be younger kids who get playing time," said Potts.

"We have six seniors on varsity, but a lot of our strength comes from our sophomores and juniors. That makes our JV pretty small, with only five players. As long as we don't go five sets with a team, we will have girls available to play," she added.

This year's player's include: freshmen Kelsey Alleman, Lena Baker, Mackenzie Forney, and Devon Harshman (who will play on varsity); sophomores Anna Nerf, Tayler Jones, Ariel Sandau, Karlie Mathews and Chloe Pearson; juniors Jade Alleman, Taylor Hays, Timber Frohreich; and seniors; Caitlyn Jones, Caitlin Mohney, Anissa Holmberg, Bailey Adams, and Josie Tyler. Senior Jaidyn Brown will sit the season out because of medical reasons, but is a team manager.

The players listed their strengths as playing scrappy, strong hitting, and teamwork and Coach Potts agrees. "They're very scrappy, especially when they communicate. The more they communicate, the scrappier they play," she said.

"I thought their hitting would be the last thing we'd develop, but it's better than I thought it would be. Since we're a short team we're going to focus more on defense and passing," she added.

Both players and coach agree that developing consistent serves is a priority. "We'll be working a lot on the overall knowledge of the game – fully understanding what the other team is doing and being able to anticipate based on that," said Potts.

With a positive season opener under their belts, the Lady Cards are looking forward to a replay at this weekend's tournament in Waitsburg which runs from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sat.