Garden County sweeps home invite, defeats Bayard, Leyton

OSHKOSH, NE — The Garden County Eagles swept its competition Tuesday Evening at its home triangular, defeating the Bayard Tigers and Leyton Warriors in straight sets.

Garden County beat Bayard 26-24, 25-18 before downing Leyton 25-15, 25-16 to finish the night 2-0 at the Garden County Triangular.

Against Bayard, the Eagles found themselves down in set one 11-7 before a run lead by four ace serves by McKenna Krueger propelled the team to a 19-15 lead. Garden County maintained that lead to 24-22 before the Tigers tied it at 24, causing a Garden County timeout. 

Out of the break, the Eagles won back-to-back points to take the set. 

In set two, Garden County started on a 6-0 run and never looked back in route to the 25-18 set two win. 

Krueger lead Garden County with eight kills and four ace serves against Bayard. Kamry Kramer added six kills and an ace for the Eagles. 

The Tigers were lead by the six kills and ace serve of Danika Hassel while Dani Harter and Lexi Fiscus each had five kills for Bayard.

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Garden County got out to a similarly hot start against Leyton, taking an 8-0 advantage in set one. Mallory Zorn had five ace serves in the set for the Eagles who won it 25-15. 

Leyton trailed throughout set two, but despite a slow start, battled to make the score 16-14 in favor of Garden County. The Eagles took over from that point, outscoring the Warriors 9-2 to win the set 25-16 and take the match. 

Krueger again lead Garden County with six kills and an ace serve. Kramer had four kills against the Warriors while Zorn would finish with six ace serves. 

Courtney Holt finished with the most kills for Leyton with three. 

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In the other match of the night, Bayard defeated Leyton in straight sets 25-15, 25-15. 

The squads battled back and forth in set one before Bayard took a 11-6 advantage and forced a Leyton timeout. From there, Bayard continued to increase its lead as Leyton struggled with attack errors. 

In set two, Bayard got a diversified attack as four players had multiple kills in set two for the Tigers. Five Tigers also had ace serves in the second set. 

Joslyn Hopkins lead Bayard to the win with seven kills. Dani Harter finished with six kills and an ace serve. The Tigers had eight ace serves as a team. 

Leyton got three kills apiece from Holt Kaitlyn Craig and Trinity Beutler. Holt and Beutler also had ace serves. 

Garden County (14-4) will be back on the court Thursday in Morrill. Bayard (5-5) will travel to the Minatare Triangular to face Minatare and South Platte Thursday. 

Leyton (7-7) returns home Thursday to face Kimball and Hay Springs in a triangular.