By Reagan Hoverman

After dropping back-toback Middle Border Confer –

ence matches against Somer set and Altoona on Tuesday, Oct. 4, and Thursday, Oct. 6, the Prescott Cardinals vol- leyball team’s hopes of an MBC championship all but disappeared.

One week before the Tues – day night matchup at home against Somerset, Prescott held a perfect 4-0 record in Middle Border Conference action and was on the cusp of its first league title since the 2015 season. Now, seven days later, the Cardinals have been mathematically eliminated from the conference championship discussion.

Although both games re sulted in losses, they were very diuerent losses, at least in the eyes of Prescott’s first- year head coach Tracey Bud- worth. Against Somerset, the Cardinals played with energy and passion, but couldn’t get out of a hole that eventually ended in a 3-1 loss against the Spartans.

However, the Thursday loss was much diuerent. The Cardinals came out flat and didn’t have much energy. Budworth spoke about the dichotomy of the two losses that ended conference cham- pionship hopes prematurely.

“We lost in four against Somerset but our cover- age was fantastic, our serv – ing was 94%, we played with good energy, we just couldn’t seem to get things turned around,” Budworth said. “Tonight (Thursday) we were pretty flat. We can’t set up good plays with the kind of passes that we’re sending. We can’t score points when we’re putting our attacks into the net.” Budworth didn’t mince words regarding what one of the biggest hopes was for this 2022 roster – win the program’s first conference championship in seven years and reclaim the Middle Bor- der.

“We’re disappointed,” Budworth said. “This does take us out of our conference championship goal. Tuesday we were still looking at it like we could win the next two and share it, but now we know that we don’t have a chance to even share it.” After losing in four sets to Somerset, Prescott’s strug –

gles continued in the open – ing set against Altoona on Thursday, Oct. 6. Even with a raucous home crowd envi- ronment, the Cardinals strug – gled to get the ouense going early, which led to a quick 6-1 Railroader lead. That lead eventually ballooned into a 20-10 advantage that helped Altoona secure a 2521 victory to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series.

Proven team leader junior Reese Ptacek helped get the girls fired up for the second set. The Cardinals battled and kept the set close with Altoona having leads of 8-6, 14-11, and 17-15. Prescott fought to stay in the game and rallied all the way to tie the second set 19-19.

However, that’s when the Cardinals were tagged with a penalty for an illegal substi – tution, which gave Altoona a point and serving honors, which the Railroaders used to secure a 25-23 victory in the second set to take a 2-0 series lead. Budworth ad dressed some of the confu- sion around substituting in the front row, especially giv – en conflicting answers from ovcials this season.

“It’s been very frustrating the last couple of weeks. I send in Aubryn (Ennenga) to serve and I’ve been told something diuerent about substituting every time,” Budworth said. “Once So – phie (Murphy) is in for Campbell (Hunt), how do we switch out front row again? I kept getting diuerent an –

swers.” Budworth stated that on Thursday night against Al toona, she substituted the way that the referee on Tues- day night told her, and she was immediately charged with an illegal substitution. However, she did state that a long explanation from the of – ficial during the game against Altoona cleared up the issue and it will be resolved mov- ing forward.

Unfortunately, it proved to be a pivotal moment in the second set that helped Altoona take a command –

ing 2-0 lead. The Railroad – ers again took control in the third set with an early 10-2 lead that made Prescott’s gym almost silent.

Altoona built on that lead and cruised to a 25-11 victory in the third set to secure a 3-0 sweep of the Cardinals. The loss dropped Prescott’s overall record to 21-13 and 4-2 in the Middle Border Conference. Baldwin-Wood ville, Altoona, and Somerset – at least as of Monday, Oct. 10 – hold 5-1 records in the MBC and are fighting for a league title.

“Now we’re just going to finish the regular season strong and hope for a decent seed on Sunday and hope fully come away from this week stronger,” Budworth said after the Altoona loss. “But we’ve got to adjust our attacks. We’ve had a lot of attack errors in the last week. We need to make sure we’re getting passes close to the target instead of the back cor – ners or the bleachers. Those have to change if we want to go deep in the postseason.” Although there is still one regular season game left, a Tuesday, Oct. 11, match on the road against Osceola, the Cardinals have been assigned the #8 seed in the WIAA Di- vision 3 playous.

According to the WIAA ovcial bracket, Prescott will host #9 Northwestern on Tuesday, Oct. 18. The win – ner of that game will play on the road against the #1 seed Baldwin-Woodville Black – hawks on Thursday, Oct. 20.

The Prescott Cardinals’ backline defense of sophomore Natalie Ptacek (right), junior middle hitter Reese Ptacek (middle), and senior outside hitter Katrina Budworth (left), get ready to receive the serve during Prescott’s home game against Altoona on Thursday, Oct. 6.Photo by Reagan Hoverman