Photo by Heather Kleiboer
In many ways, sports campaigns this season are unfair to many involved. The silver lining is, at least there is a season, particularly for the teams who stay COVID-free enough to keep playing. For M-C volleyball, the season in unfair in that there aren’t any big weekend tourneys against tougher competition. With a 150-plus SEC match win-streak going, playing only SEC matches makes it less notable news when you start 9-0, like Lonnie Morken’s Cougars have. It has been, and was, business as usual as M-C swept Randolph (25-14, 25-14, 25-7) and Schaeffer Academy (25-10, 25-6, 25-11) to post another 2-0 week. Versus the Rockets, Kenidi McCabe (18 kills, 14 assists, 10 digs, 10-11 serving, 3 aces) led the way with a season-high in spikes. She hit a whopping .630 (18 kills on 27 attacks with one error) while notching her third triple-double of the year (second versus Randolph). Sophie Morken (6 kills, 24 assists, 16-17 serving, 3 aces), Jordyn Newgard (8 kills, 6 digs, 4 aces), Molly Lee (7 kills), and Emily Carolan (6 kills) helped. Versus the Lions, 11 Cougars combined for 23 ace serves. Seven Cougars had three-plus kills. Every grade (save freshman) had someone with four-plus kills. So. Morken (8 kills, 7 assists, 9-10 serving, 5 aces), McCabe (6 kills, 14 assists), Newgard (5 kills), Kinley Soiney (4 kills), Carolan (4 kills), Saijal Slafter (4 kills), Lee (3 kills, 10-10 serving, 3 aces), Lauren Wyffels (13-14 serving, 4 aces), and Sahara Morken (10 assists) all did work. Set unbeaten (27-0), the #4-ranked Cougars are 9-0.