Lady Yellow Jackets split for the week
The Chester Lady Yellow Jackets had a busy week last week, which featured matchups against rivals Steeleville and Trico.
Chester beat Sesser-Valier-Waltonville (27-25 and 25-17) and the Lady Warriors (25-22, 20-25 and 25-23), but fell to Valmeyer (25-22, 25-20) and the Pioneers (27-25, 25-12, 25-19) to finish the week with a record of 14-6 and 6-3 in the Black Diamond Conference.
Valmeyer def. Chester
The Chester JV won their match against the JV Lady Pirates while the varsity Lady Yellow Jackets lost in two sets.
Both matches were close and competitive, but Chester just couldn't handle two of the Lady Pirates heavy hands at the net.
For the night, the Lady Yellow Jackets accumulated 22 kills led by a tandem of Lauren Welge and Maddie Hoffman with six each. Others who recorded kills included Carlee Weir and Katie Hoffman who each had four kills apiece.
As a team, Chester had 20 assists with Carlee Weir recording 18 of those. Chester had three aces with Reese Chandler serving two of those and Welge added one.
Maddie Hoffman and Carlee Weir each had six digs apiece, followed by Tayler Howie (5), Katie Hoffman (5) and Ashtyn Jany (4).
Chester def. S-V-W
Chester played the Red Devils at Sesser on Aug. 28 in the first game of the season, beating them on their home court in three sets.
In the rematch on Sept. 26, JV won in two sets, 25-23 and 25-13. Lauren Vasquez contributed nine points and four aces, and Lauren Soellner added four points and two aces in Chester's win.
Chester took an early 6-1 lead to start the first set of the varsity match, but S-V-W's Dakota Quinn later reeled off 12 unanswered points to tie the game at 24-24.
The teams traded points until Chester senior Katie Hoffman finally put the Lady Yellow Jackets over the top.
In the second set, Katie Hoffman served four straight points to give Chester a 24-14 lead, but S-V-W would not go away in closing to within seven at 24-17 before the Lady Yellow Jackets closed it out.
For the match, Katie Hoffman led the Yellow Jackets in kills with nine, followed by Lauren Welge (4), Grace Stec (3), and Lauren Vasquez (2).
Weir led in aces with five and assists with 17, while Lauren Welge had two blocks to lead Chester in that category. On defense, Maddie Hoffman, Ashtyn Jany and Carlee Weir each had seven digs apiece to lead Chester.
Chester def. Steeleville
On Sept. 27, Chester hosted Steeleville. Chester freshman Reese Chandler started out the first set with a four-point run to give Chester a 5-1 lead.
Steeleville managed to tie the game at 15 midway through the game, but Chester never allowed the Lady Warriors a chance to take the lead despite holding a slim one-point lead through much of the remainder of the set.
The second set featured four ties and was tied at 19 late before Steeleville went on a late five-point run to force the tiebreaker.
Neither team was willing to give up in the third set, which was tied 14 times before Chester finally got the win after a gutsy effort.
For the match, the Yellow Jackets recorded 26 kills, led by Katie Hoffman with 11. They also had 28 assists, led by Carlee Weir's 15.
Katie Hoffman led in blocks with four and Tayler Howie led Chester in digs with 20. Finally, Maddie Hoffman led Chester in aces with five.
Trico def. Chester
On Sept. 28, Chester ended a busy two-week period against BDC rival Trico.
During the battle, Chester recorded 37 kills, 35 assists, 27 digs, 12 aces and four blocks. Lauren Welge led in kills with 12, followed by Katie Hoffman (10), Maddie Hoffman (10), Grace Stec (4), and Carlee Weir (1).
Weir led in assists with 28, followed by Katie Hoffman (4), and Maddie Hoffman (3). Tayler Howie led in digs with eight, followed by Weir (6), Katie Hoffman (5), Ashtyn Jany (4), and Maddie Hoffman (4).
Reese Chandler led the team in aces with five, followed by Katie Hoffman (5), Maddie Hoffman (3), Howie (2), Welge (1) and Weir (1).
Katie Hoffman led in blocks with three and Grace Stec added one.
The Lady Yellow Jackets have four more weeks of volleyball left in the 2017 season including three more home games and four more regular season away games. Regional action begins the week of Oct. 23 and pairings will be released by the IHSA by 4 p.m. Friday.