Lady Cardinals Travel to the Mahomet-Seymour Volleyball Tournament

The Pleasant Plains Volleyball team has high expectations for this 2011 season.  So far they have started their season off strongly. They defeated North Mac, and won 3 out of their 3 conference matches against Auburn, Sangamon Valley, and Illini Central. These wins contributed to their undefeated record of 4-0.

            With a record of 4-0, on September 10^th, the team traveled to Mahomet-Seymour to compete in the Bulldog’s tournament.  Plains pool consisted of Urbana, Heritage, and Mahomet-Seymour. The Cardinals faced Heritage in their first match of pool play.  They came out ready to play and defeated Heritage in two games. Game one with scores of 25-13 and 25-17, improving the Cardinal’s record to 5-0.

            The next game in their pool was against Urbana.  The competition and intensity rose during this game, and the Cardinals played very well with strong defense and quick, effective offense. Both games consisted of wins with a score of 25-16, and after a great played match, this put their record at 6-0. 

            The Cardinals kept the energy up as they went straight into the final game of pool play with Mahomet-Seymour.  At this point the Cardinals and Bulldogs were both 2-0 in their pool.  The winner of this match would advance from the pool play into the championship bracket of the tournament play.  Plains started out strong with momentum and energy from their previous victory over Urbana, but Mahomet did not give up and brought the heat.  They beat Plains in the first game with a score of 25-20.  It was very close as both teams were striving for the common goal, which was to enter the championship bracket.  In game two Plains was ready knowing they needed to win the game in order to take it into a third game for a match victory.  The scoreboard was changing rapidly throughout the game and the fans became extremely rowdy.  Mahomet was ahead in game two by nine points, but Plains called a timeout, reset, and came back to be ahead by one point.  This second match was very intense, well played volleyball, and in the end Mahomet ended up defeating Plains.  This sent the Cardinals to the consolation bracket and added their first loss of the season.

            Tournament play followed after all pools had finished competing.  The cardinals faced Wilmington for their first match.  The team seemed to recover from the previous loss in the Mahomet game and won the first game over Wilmington with a score of 25-13. However, Wilmington won the second game 13-25 and then the third 11-15, changing the Cardinals record to 6-2.

            The last game left in this consolation bracket for Pleasant Plains was against St. Anthony.  The Cardinals defeated St. Anthony in two games.  The first game 25-23 and the second game 25-17.  This was a great way to recover from the previous, back to back losses, and to add another win to their record of 7 wins and 2 losses.

            In the tournament, Callie Whetstone led the Cardinals with 36 Kills, while Abby Kulavic had 40 Set Assists and Madison Oschwald had 88 Defensive Digs and 93 Perfect Passes to the setter. Defensive specialist, Jenni Ruggless stated her thoughts of the tournament, “I think we played really well, we were just unlucky in such a hard pool.  I know against Mahomet and Wilmington we were the better team. It was a learning experience.”

            Callie Whetstone, a senior, middle blocker for the Cardinals, said, “Losses are always hard but they are part of the season.  It is a learning experience which teaches us our weaknesses, what we need to fix, and how to progress from there.  As long as we pick each other up, learn, and continue playing as a team; we will have a good, successful season.”


-Emily Baietto
-Megan Wavering
 The Cardinal