The Lady Cardinals competed in two road contests this past week at Centralia and Axtell.

Centralia

Wetmore’s Lady Cardinals traveled to Centralia on Tuesday, Sept. 20, to compete in a triangular meet. Wetmore would face Hanover in the first match of the night followed by Centralia in some tough Twin Valley volleyball court battles. The Cardinals faced two salty, experienced teams, and fell victim to Wildcats and Panthers in straight sets.

“This week we played the number one team Hanover and the number four team Centralia of the Twin Valley League. They were tough matches,” said Head Coach Cindy Osterhaus.

In their first match of the afternoon, the Cardinals faced off against the Wildcats of Hanover. Wetmore fell behind and struggled to battle back to fall, 9-25. In the second set, the wheels came off of the cart for the Cardinals and Hanover would take the quick win, 25-5.

Centralia lost to Hanover in their first match 1-2 to the Twin Valley leader, and boasted 13-4 mark on the season when they took on Wetmore. The Panthers jumped out to an early lead and used their experience and their skill players to pick wins in straight sets over the Cardinals, 25-8 and 25-4.

“We have been continuing to work on skills in practice to make strides to get better,” Coach Osterhaus said.

“We are a younger team this year, so it’s taken awhile to adjust, but we see improvement every week,” said senior leader athlete Kaitlyn Claycamp.

Axtell

Wetmore traveled to the Axtell Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 24, to take on some Twin Valley opponents and some teams from other leagues around the area. The Cardinals had some fierce competition and battled the entire day, but came up short in their matches going 0-4 for the meet.

The Cardinals faced host school Axtell to open up the day and fell in straight matches, 15-25 and 15-25. Linn’s Lady Bulldogs kept Wetmore on their heels and took a pair of wins in the second round, 12-25 and 13-25. The Cardinals took on Pawnee City, Neb., in round three and fell 14-25 in the first set, but battled and gave the Indians a run for their money in the second, eventually losing, 20-25. Sacred Heart was their final match of the day and retired Wetmore in straight sets, 5-25 and 11-25.

Claycamp led her team on the court with a 77 percent hitting percentage, 18 kills and had two serving aces. Senior Lexi Hipp had seven aces, eight kills and an 87 percent in the hitting department. Junior Rylie Nichols had an 83 percentage serving average with seven aces and attacking the net for seven kills.

Wetmore continued league play at Washington County on Tuesday, Sept. 27. These results were not available at The Herald’s press time.