Platte County proved again that when limiting its own mistakes, the results take care of themselves.
This came up again over the weekend in the annual Platte County Invitational. The Pirates came up with a dramatic three-set comeback in the semifinals at Platte County High School and then dominated the final against Liberty North — a team they split with earlier in the day during pool play.
Platte County won its home tournament for the first time since 2014, going 5-0-1 on the day.
“Every single time we are in the huddle, we tell the girls to control our side of the net,” Platte County coach Katlyn Donovan said. “When we can control what we can control, I think we are a pretty decent team.”
After going 2-0-1 with the early tie to Liberty North, Platte County ended up with the second seed on tiebreaker out of its pool. The Pirates responded with a quick two-set thrashing of Winnetonka (25-15, 25-11) behind eight kills from sophomore Aly Anderson and three service aces for junior setter Ashley Bell.
That set up a semifinal rematch with Park Hill, which lost to Platte County in the season-opener.
Hannah Graves, a sophomore, continued a strong day of service for Park Hill and helped them to an early 15-9 lead. Platte County remained out of sorts on offense and dropped the opening set.
That led to the obvious comeback strategy.
“I think our goal for Park Hill was to keep them out of system as much as possible,” Donovan said. “That first set, they were in system; they could do whatever they wanted, and our defense couldn’t keep up. The second and third set, I think we did a better job keeping them out of system, and our defense did a better job of picking up the stuff they sent over the net.”
Platte County went back-and-forth in the second set but eventually pulled ahead 22-15 before taking the second set. The Pirates then opened the third set on a 4-1 run, led by five twice early and despite some tight moments held on for the 20-25, 25-18, 25-21 win.
A long free ball over the net from Acker appeared to seal the win when the line judge ruled the ball down on the back end of Park Hill’s side. However, the side judge overruled and forced a replay of the point, resulting in a return error from Park Hill that allowed Platte County to celebrate again.
Anderson had 10 kills, while sophomore Bryn McGehe added eight and senior Harper Sinclair seven in the three sets for Platte County. Acker, a senior service specialist, had two of the Pirates’ five aces.
Perhaps most importantly, Platte County senior Carli Hensley totaled 27 digs to lead the defensive effort against a tough Park Hill front line.
McGehe posted a team-high 10 kills, 10 digs and seven assists in the 25-14, 25-13 sweep of Liberty North in the championship game. Bell finished off her steady tournament with 13 assists from the setter spot, while Hensley (23), Bell (11) and Anderson (10) joined McGehe with double-digit digs.
Platte County’s players then treated the fans left in attendance to a choreographed dance to the song Cotton-Eyed Joe that the players perfected during a Western-themed homecoming week. With the win, the Pirates improved to 16-2-2 pending the result of a Suburban Conference Blue Division matchup with Winnetonka on Tuesday, Sept. 25.
Park Hill went 4-1-1 on the day and improved to 7-9-2 overall, pending the result of Tuesday night’s matchup with Staley. The Trojans came back to top Smithville for third place in a 25-21, 25-17 two-set sweep after the teams had split a pool matchup earlier in the day.
Kristen Birmingham, a sophomore, recorded a team-high 10 kills in the third-place match, while senior Sabrina Lane added eight.
Park Hill trailed 14-12 in its quarterfinal against William Chrisman but came back behind a strong service run for Graves and 11 kills for Birmingham. Graves, Lane, and seniors Kori Smith and Landyn Powell all had two service aces apiece in the Trojans’ 25-19, 25-11 victory.
Birmingham had at least seven kills in all six matches, including 12 in two of them (pool vs. Smithville and vs. Platte County).