NHS volleyball upended at state

The Niwot High School volleyball team season finally came to an end, but not until the Cougars were eliminated at the state Class 4A tournament Nov. 10.

The Cougars got to state by knocking off cross-town rival Longmont High School, a higher seed, on the Trojans’ home floor Nov. 4. At state, Niwot was seeded 11th out of the 12 teams that qualified, and found themselves paired up with No. 6 seed Palisade High School in the first round on Thursday, Nov. 9.

Niwot started strong, winning a hard-fought first set 25-23. Palisade regrouped to win the next set, 25-15, setting up a pivotal third set. This time, the two-point victory went to Palisade as the Cougars fell, 33-31. Faced with having to win the next two sets, Niwot could not keep pace with Palisade, falling 25-16.

That put the Cougars in the loser’s bracket on Friday, Nov. 10, where they were matched with No. 5-seeded Lutheran High School. Niwot never got untracked, losing in three sets, 25-14, 25-20 and 25-19.

Senior Addison Engel led the squad with 16 kills against Lutheran, with a .714 kill percentage. Junior Jade West was second on the team with five kills. As a team, Niwot had a better hitting percentage at .528 to .448, but Lutheran had 87 attempts to Niwot’s 36.

Senior Sami Sessa led the Cougars in serving with three aces, but as a team, Niwot had only six aces to 11 by Lutheran. Sophomore Bella Berger led the Cougars with eight digs, and Sessa was close behind with seven. Junior setter Anne Haley led Niwot with 27 assists, with Engel picking up the only other assist by the Cougars.

Neither Palisade nor Lutheran advanced past the second round of the loser’s bracket. The Cougars finished the season with a record of 17-10, and took second in the Longs Peak League with a record of 8-1.