It was another challenging week for the Superior Lady Bobcats volleyball team.

They began a two-match week with a trip to St. Regis for a match with the I-90 rival Lady Tigers last Tuesday.  They battled St. Regis for four tough sets before falling 3-1. 

Two days later, they hosted unbeaten Seeley-Swan and were swept 3-0. 

The young Lady Bobcats have shown improvement and a fight to the end attitude, two factors that will lead to better days. 

Against St. Regis Superior the Cats established an early lead in set number one, moving from a 6-4 advantage to 17-6 later in the set. 

However, St. Regis trimmed that lead to 20-18 and then 21-20 before Superior righted the ship and earned a hard-fought 24-21 lead on their way to a 25-21 set victory and a 1-0 match advantage. 

Set two was a back-and-forth battle from start to finish with five early ties and lead changes.  St. Regis tied the set at 19, then took a 21-19 lead before Superior knotted the score at 22 and again at 23.  Superior then pulled ahead, 24-23 before St. Regis tied it one last time at 24-24.  The Lady Tigers then scored two straight points for a come-from-behind 26-24 win that tied the match at one set each. 

Set three, the often-pivotal set, saw St. Regis take an early lead that they eventually extended to 14-6.  Superior scored six straight points to pull within two, 14-12. 

St. Regis then went on a run that ended with a 25-16 set three win and a 2-1 match lead. 

The Lady Tigers led the fourth set from start to finish and took a 25-19 set win to secure a 3-1 match triumph. 

Sophomore standout Josie Crabb led Superior’s effort with a team-high 16 digs and shared the lead in kill shots with Braelyn Mangold.  Both girls had 8 hits each. 

Perri Jasper and Lyla Beaudoin had 14 assists each, while mangold led the Cats with two blocked shots. 

Superior hosted Seeley-Swan two days later and went toe-to-toe with the 4-0 Blackhawks throughout a hard-fought match. 

The Cats dropped the first set 25-20, then lost set number two by the same count to fall behind 2-0 in the match.  They kept fighting in the third set but could not get past the visitors and lost 25-22, giving the Blackhawks the 3-0 match win. 

Several Lady Bobcats had solid efforts against Seeley, led by Jasper who had a team-best 11 assists.  Makenzie Reum led the Cats in service aces with six, added four kills, and recorded nine digs, tying her with Crabb for the team lead in that category.  Crabb also contributed three kill shots. 

Beaudoin had seven service aces to lead the team and added seven assists. Mangold contributed five aces, five kills and had one blocked shot for Superior. 

The losses dropped Superior to 0-7 on the season. 

Next up for the Lady Bobcats is a game tonight (Sept 24) in St. Ignatius, followed by a trip to Troy next Thursday.  They return home Saturday (Sept 28) for a match with Eureka at 4 p.m.