The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

The Fleming Lady Wildcats returned to the volleyball court last week just a few short months after earning last year’s State runner-up title. Their debut appearance of the season came at the Kit Carson Tournament where they took the Championship title after defeating the defending 2A State Champion Wiggins Lady Tigers. Under the direction of new Head Coach Megan Chintala, a 2015 Fleming High School graduate who helped lead the Lady Wildcats to back-to-back State Championships before going on to play at the collegiate level, the team swept Akron, Simla and grabbed a five-set win over Wiggins to earn Saturday’s title.

Fleming faced off with 2A’s Akron Lady Rams to open Saturday’s event. The Lady Rams fell in three sets to the local ladies, 25-13, 25-16 and 25-19.

Junior Kally Kirkwood led her team at the net in this year’s season opener. She put 15 kills on the floor and added four blocks on defense. She also added seven defensive digs and served over the team-high three aces.

Senior Whitney Chintala followed Kirkwood at the net also hitting double digits in the kill category with 10. She led her team in digs with 18 from the back row and matched Kirkwood’s three aces.

Lady Wildcat Libero Lexi Schaefer, a junior on this year’s team, put up 11 digs to sophomore setter Madi Serrato who assisted with 15 sets.

Match two of Saturday’s tournament brought the Simla Lady Cubs to the opposite side of the net. The two teams met last in mid-May when the Lady Wildcats knocked the Lady Cubs out of the State Tournament in the Final Four round in four sets. This time the Lady Wildcats swept the Lady Cubs, 25-11, 25-15 and 25-17.

The hard-hitting duo of Kirkwood and Chintala led again at the net with double digits in kills for the second consecutive contest. Kirkwood tallied 18 kills with two blocks. Chintala added another 12 kills for her team while leading from the back row with 15 digs.

Senior Zoey Vandenbark, Schaefer and junior Laney Schliesser also hit double digits in digs from the back row. Vandenbark put up 12 followed by Schaefer and Schliesser with 11 and 10 respectively.

The final match of the day put Fleming on the court with last year’s 2A State Champion Wiggins Lady Tigers. Fleming fought in the opening two sets, but fell 25-19 and 25-20. They returned in the third to turn the tables and take sets three through five by scores of 25-21, 25-22 and 15-6 giving the top finish for the day.

The five-set match meant tournament-high stats for much of the Lady Wildcat squad.

Five members of the team added double digits in defensive digs. Schaefer led from her designated back-row spot with 23 digs. Kirkwood followed with 20 while Schliesser, Chintala and Vandenbark rounded out the remaining of the top five with 17, 15 and 10 respectively.

Serrato assisted with 23 sets in the match to Kirkwood and Chintala who earned 24 and 20 kills respectively.

Kirkwood also put up a solid performance on defense at the net with eight blocks. Chintala followed with two followed by junior Maddy Harms and senior Sam Pope who added one block apiece.

This week’s schedule brings the Lady Wildcats out on their home court against the Briggsdale Lady Falcons. Briggsdale enters at 2-1 with tournament wins over Arickaree/Woodlin and Haxtun last week. Game time is set for 5:30 p.m.

The defending 6-man State Champion Wildcats are also set to take the field on Thursday for their home and season opener. They’ll host Arickaree/Woodlin that night with kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m.