Here are Thursday’s area sports highlights:
VOLLEYBALL
Wayne upsets Ponca in five-set thriller — The Wayne High volleyball team picked up a big win Thursday with a five-set upset of Class C-2 top 10-ranked Ponca at home, winning 24-26, 27-25, 25-19, 22-25, 15-9. Allison Echtenkamp had a huge night at the net with 26 kills, while Emily Armstrong added nine and Kylie Hammer and Lindy Sandoz each had seven. Sandoz had 26 assists and Brenna Vovos put up 12. Defensively, Hammer and Emily Matthes each had 21 digs, Armstrong picked up 19, Echtenkamp had 15, Sandoz had 12 and Vovos had 10.
Wakefield, LCC compete at Wakefield Invite — Wakefield and Laurel-Concord-Coleridge were in the same pool for the first day of the Wakefield Invitational volleyball tournament, with the host Trojans beating the Lady Bears 25-16, 25-20. Briana Andrade had five kills and Avery Zamzow added three to pace the winners, with Jessica Borg and Savannah Nelson each recording seven assists. LCC got five kills from Kaci Groene and fou assists from Katelyn Cook. Lorna Maxon had four digs and three blocks to lead the defense. In other action, Wakefield fell to Lutheran High Northeast 25-19, 25-17, while LCC dropped to Stanton in straight sets, 25-15, 25-12. Play continues on Saturday at Wakefield High School.
Allen splits triangular — Allen split a triangular at Wausa, losing to the host Lady Vikings 26-24, 24-26, 25-11 and beating Bloomfield 25-12, 25-13. In the Wausa game, Bri Hingst had eight kills and Cassidy Thomas had 10 assists. Katie Bathke recorded five digs. Against Bloomfield, Hingst had four kills and Thomas had seven assists, while Bathke led with three digs.
CROSS COUNTRY
Wayne girls sixth at Pius Invite — The Wayne High girls cross country team finished sixth and the boys placed 10th at the Lincoln Pius Invitational at Pionners Park. Hannah Leonard led the Wayne girls, finishing 26th. Gabi Meyer was 28th, Andrea Torres finished 30th and Marcella Jurotich placed 32nd for the scoring Blue Devil runners. For the boys, Brandon Wacker led the way with a 52nd place finish, Jack Evetovich was 55th, Will Anderson was 58th and RJ Liska was 62nd to account for the scoring Blue Devil runners. Wayne hosts its own invitational on Monday at 4:30 p.m. at the Wayne Country Club.
