BANGS – A see-saw season for the Bangs Lady Dragons volleyball team reached its highest point Tuesday, as a 25-17, 25-19, 26-24 victory over De Leon in a District 5-2A play-in match earned head coach Colleen Westfall’s squad the league’s final playoff berth.
With the straight-set victory, Bangs (9-25) advances to the Region I-2A bi-district round of the playoffs where it will square off with District 6 champion Hawley at 8 p.m. Thursday in Clyde.
“To these girls, this means a lot,” Westfall said of the Lady Dragons clinching a playoff spot. “It has a been a rough year, we’ve taken quite a few on the chin, but to come out and play the way that we did tonight, this team may be inexperienced and young, but they have a lot of grit in them.”
Ashlynn Sliger paced the Bangs attack with 18 kills trailed by six each from Stormy Stringer and Cameryn Harmon and five by Karlyee Sliger.
Justice Baker distributed 23 assists while Cricket Caulkins chipped in five, while Adalynne Stephens served three aces, Baker added a pair, and Kylee Byler, Lily Boren, and Ashlynn Sliger logged one each.
On the defensive end, Baker led the team with 25 digs followed by 16 from Cloey Petty, 11 from Stephens, 10 from Byler, eight from Stringer, seven from Harmon, three from Boren, two apiece from Caulkins and Karlyee Sliger, and one by Jasmine Lewis.
At the net, Harmon tallied the lone Bangs block.
“Overall we did really well,” Westfall said. “They’ve shown some growth and improvement even though we are still so young on the court and have that slight inexperience. But they definitely came out to battle tonight, they knew what was on the line, they get to go the playoffs and they’re excited about that. We had a few hiccups, but they ended up gritting it out and getting it done.”
In the opening set, Bangs trailed 14-12 before consecutive kills by Ashlynn Sliger knotted the score. Later tied at 15, a pair of De Leon hitting errors, followed by back-to-back aces from Baker, pushed Bangs in front, 19-15, as the Lady Dragons jumped out to a 1-0 lead.
The Lady Dragons trailed 16-13 in the second set but scored 12 of the final 15 points to take firm control of the match. After pulling even at 18 on another De Leon hitting error, back-to-back kills by Harmon and Ashlynn Sliger gave Bangs the lead for good, 20-18.
In the final set, Bangs opened an 18-12 advantage, only to witness De Leon storm back and grab a 19-18 lead. Consecutive kills from Ashlynn Sliger and an ace by Boren pushed the Lady Dragons back in front, 21-19. De Leon eventually evened the score again at 24, but Karlyee Sliger then recorded back-to-back kills for Bangs to complete the sweep.
Following the match, the Lady Dragon seniors – Baker, Petty, Byler and Stringer – were honored for their contributions to the program.
“I’m going to miss them, I really am,” Westfall said of the senior class. “They’re a great group of girls, they work hard and honestly they’re the most fun group of girls. They can be serious and have a funny bone at the same time. At times it drives me insane at practice, but it’s just who they are and it works really well and I’m going to miss them greatly.”