On Aug. 9, the Great Plains Athletic Conference sent out the 2024 Volleyball Coaches’ Preseason Poll, and out of twelve different teams Doane received 9th with a total of 45 points and having a season record of 8-19 in 2023.
Opening their season, the Tigers traveled to Montana, and their first game was against Montana Tech. There were three sets played and the Orediggers took the win with a final score of 0-3 with scores being 16-25, 20-25, and 18-25.
The Tigers had a total of 29 kills compared to the Orediggers who had 47. Senior Kayden Schumacher had eight kills with an attacking percentage of .333 throughout the match, and senior Taylor Sluka added another eight kills, but her attacking percentage was .222.
Going into assists the Tigers had a total of twenty, 14 from sophomore Chloe Rose and remaining six from sophomore Camdyn Carpenter. Along with that, the Tigers also had a total of 42 digs in the match, 10 were from senior Grace Zeier and eight were from Carpenter.
Starting the next game, the Tigers went up against Providence where there were four sets played and the Argos took the win with a final score of 3-1, with the set scores being 25-20, 21-25, 25-16, and 25-19.
Finishing the game with 11 kills was sophomore Sophia Turek and Sluka, and adding eight kills to that was Schumacher. Picking up 18 assists was sophomore Chloe Rose and having 17 assists was Carpenter, which ended the Tigers with 35 total assists. Along with that freshman Kate Roseland also gave the team three ace serves throughout the game.
The Tigers ended the game with 54 digs, 26 of those were from Zeier, 18 from junior Harper Case, and 10 from junior Sophia McKinney.
After two tough games, the Tigers took on the Rocky Mountain’s Battlin Bears where three sets were played and the Bears took the win with a final score of 0-3, with the scores being 17-25, 22-25 and 23-25.
Overall the Tigers had 38 kills, 11 of them were from freshman Kate Roseland and eight are from senior Kayden Schumacher. The Tigers also dished up 29 assists from Carpenter (10) and Rose (10).
Switching over to the defensive side, Zeier had 22 digs, Mckinney had 17 digs, and Case had 14 digs, making the Tigers have a total of 53 digs.
And hitting into their final game in Montana was against Carroll when they also took the win with the final score being 0-3, with the set scores being 15-25, 11-25, and 13-25.
Leading into the kills both Schumacher and Sluka both had four kills and Carpenter also ended the match with 12 assists. Leading the team was Zeier (14) and Rose (9) had a total of 23 digs combined.
On Aug. 23 the Tigers will be competing in the Bellevue GoSarpy.com Classic to compete against Goshen College.
