Ladies volleyball remains undefeated in region play

By John Smithson

The North Myrtle Beach Lady Chiefs varsity volleyball team kept its winning streak alive through last week’s two region matches and three of their first matches in the Dorman Tournament of Champions. The Chiefs opened that tournament with  three more wins before losing to Oceanside Collegiate Academy.

The Chiefs opened last week’s region matches last Tuesday with a 3-1 win over Myrtle Beach on the road. The Lady Seahawks won the first set 25-16, but the Chiefs then won three straight sets for the 3-1 match win. The scores for the last three matches were 25-20, 25-18, 25-18.

The Chiefs scoring was helped by 18 kills by Lilly Loeswick, 17 kills by Clara Cloninger and 11 kills by Madison Johnson. Cloninger had 25 digs in the match and Katlyn Powers had 25 digs. Mikayla Altena had 48 assists.

Last Thursday the Chiefs traveled to Conway and won that match 3-1. The Chiefs opened the match with a 25-14 win in set 1, dropped the second set by a 22-25 score and then won the next two sets by 25-13 and 25-16 scores for a 3-1 victory. The Chiefs scoring was led by 21 kills by Clononger and 20 by Loeswick.

Loeswick had 26 digs, Katlyn Powers 30 digs and Cloninger had 21 digs for the Chiefs. Altena had 52 assists to lead all Chiefs.

The Chiefs traveled to the Dorman Tournament of Champions on Friday. They opened Friday’s play with a 2-0 win over Blythewood (25-16, 25-17), then beat St. Joseph’s 2-0 (25-17, 25-19).

Saturday morning the Chiefs beat Nation Ford 2-0 (25-21, 27-25). Oceanside Collegiate Academy ended the Chiefs undefeated record with a 0-2 loss (17-25, 21-25). The Chiefs came back to beat Cardinel Newman 2-1 (25-22, 25-27, 15-10).

The Chiefs ended the tournament with two more losses, a 0-2 loss to Dorman (20-25, 19-25) and a 0-2 loss to Pickens (18-25, 20-25).

Coach Jenn Loeswick, despite the recent losses, still is proud of her team. “This season has been a real team effort. Practices are competitive and this team enjoys working together. The Dorman Tournament was our third weekend in a row on the road between our Tuesday/Thursday region matches. It’s a grind and the team has really been showing some grit, which I love. The Dorman Tournament doesn’t change our goals. We talk about competing and trying to get 1 percent better so hopefully we will be playing our best volleyball at the end of the season”

“This Tuesday is Senior Night and we will recognize Clara Cloninger, Raphaella Nunes, Katlyn Powers and Kylee Rollings,” Loeswick said.