Regardless of results moving forward, Platte County’s encouraging and entertaining first season can only conclude with a winning record. The Pirates won two of three Suburban Conference White Division matchups this past week ahead of the Class 2 District 8 tournament.
A three-set sweep of Belton on Wednesday at Pirate Fieldhouse improved Platte County to 14-8-1 — an impressive mark for a roster of mostly inexperienced players building around junior standouts Joshua Echeverry and Preston Cavan plus senior setter Alex Stinson. Before the match, Platte County honored the first three seniors in program history in Stinson, Bryton Bertram, Will Babcock and Westin Summers.
Platte County has not won more than three in a row at any point but built a composed identity around a group of players enjoying the process of building a program from scratch. This included coming right back from a Monday split with Grain Valley and Fort Osage to beat Belton 25-19, 25-14, 25-16 behind a balanced attack while also taking advantage of the visiting Pirates’ errors.
Echeverry led Platte County with five kills, while junior Drake White added four. Echeverry, Cavan and Bertram accounted for three services aces with one each.
Platte County freshman Cooper Miles, the other half of a two-setter rotation, put up eight assists, while Stinson added five.
Belton’s errors included 21 in attack, eight in service and four in serve-receive. Babcock ended up with the team-lead in digs for Platte County with eight, a total indicative of the lack of longer rallies.
Platte County finished an abbreviated White Division schedule at 5-2, having lost twice to Grain Valley but sweeping both Raytown and Fort Osage in addition to the one match with Belton.
On Tuesday, Grain Valley completed the season sweep with a 25-20, 25-15 victory on Tuesday at Pirate Fieldhouse. The matches were best-of-three sets due to the triangular format.
Platte County junior Jokubas Lebedevas, who pairs with Echeverry and Bertram as the main pieces of the attack, finished with five kills. Bertram added four kills and a team-high two service aces plus the Pirates’ lone block.
Cavan, the libero, came up with seven digs, and Miles led Platte County with seven assists to Stinson’s four.
Also the triangular, Platte County swept Fort Osage 25-17, 27-25, narrowly avoiding a third set. Bertram, like Stinson signed to continue his career in college, put up eight kills with Lebedevas adding five and Echeverry four — the highlights despite an uncharacteristic 16 attack errors.
Platte County countered with a strong defensive showing. Echeverry (11) and Babcock (10) both finished in double-figures for digs, while Lebedevas added nine and Bertram eight. Stinson (nine) and Miles (eight) were nearly even in assists for the Pirates.
Up next, Platte County travels to Staley High School on Tuesday to start the postseason against fourth-seeded Oak Park (17-7-1), which owns a win this season against the fifth-seeded Pirates. The first meeting came in Oak Park’s Chopping Block Invitational — a two-set sweep in pool play.
The winner of Class 2 District 8 first-round matchup advances to play No. 1 seed Staley on Wednesday.
