Chinook set to claim another District 6C-East championship after completing regular season undefeated

The Chinook Sugarbeeters have completed a perfect regular season following a three set win over the North Star Knights in Rudyard Saturday night.

Chinook took all three sets in comfortable fashion posting 25-20, 25-15 and 25-19 set wins to complete the season sweep of the Knights.

The 'Beeter have become much more aggressive at the net lately and the play of sophomore's Abby Ellison and Sierra Swank have been a big part of that.

Against the Knights the 'Beeters recorded 29 kills with Ellison slamming home 9 of those to lead the team. Swank was responsible for 16 of the teams 29 assists.

Senior Cortney Gunderson served up four of the teams eight aces in the match and also dug up 14 balls as the defensive digs numbered 37.

The team is balanced from top to bottom with all 12 players on the roster capable of helping the team win.

Along with Gunderson, seniors Brooke Nicholson, Lauren Harshman and Kailey Kleinjan provide experience and leadership.

Juniors Kelsey Mathon, Taylor Neibauer, Brooke Elliot and Nicole McCracken all can score points for the offense or make a play on defense to help the team.

Swank, Ellison and fellow sophomores Carie Hofer and Megan Pruttis have the confidence of head coach Mollie Rose to make big contributions when called upon.

"I'm very proud of the girls and how they performed this season. They worked very hard for their accomplishments and are continuing to do so everyday," stated Rose.

The team has made great strides to improve every day and it is felt throughout the roster, "Reflecting on the beginning of the season, you can definitely tell that the team has improved. Everyday we work on team building skills in practice which has helped us to play together as a whole, and trust each other in a game," commented Swank.

"The team has improved greatly as a whole. We practice blocking almost everyday and it's definitely paid off. From the beginning of the season to now we're swinging a lot more and taking every chance we can to get a kill, and we get a lot of chances thanks to our amazing setters," added McCracken.

The 'Beeters have more than just a perfect regular season on their mind and to accomplish that will take a group effort.

"Winning the Conference was only one goal they were working to achieve. As the regular season is behind us we look forward to the next few weeks of tournaments and all that we can accomplish," concluded Rose.

Practice has focused on several areas, all with the purpose of improving the team, "As we work on different skills like blocking, passing, etc., it's exciting to see each player individually putting in the most effort they can for their teammates in practice and in a match. Some of the biggest reasons for our success this season would be our positive attitudes and our desire to win. I know we will continue with this positivity for the rest of our season. In practice we are presently working hard and focusing on Districts," stated Swank.

McCracken also had this to say, "Our back row hardly ever let's the ball hit the floor and the team has really started to flow as we go into tournaments undefeated. We just need to carry over the intensity we had during the season into tournaments and execute everything we've worked on in practice to be successful during the post season."

The 'Beeters go into the District 6C-East as the number one seed. The Chester-Joplin-Inverness Hawks finished conference play 8-2 to earn the number two seed.

The Hawks will begin tournament play in the second match of the day when they face the number three seeded North Star Knights who finished with a conference mark of 6-4.

The top three teams at the District tournament will advance to the Northern C Divisional in Belt, November 5-7.

With the top three seeds all owning a pair of 3-0 sweeps over the four seed Big Sandy Pioneers and the five seed Box Elder Bears one would expect the status quo to hold true, but it is tournament time and anything can happen.