Carissa Bacon knows the bigger challenges loom ahead — especially in the postseason — but that just makes every match, every set, every point more important to this year’s development.
Platte County senior Malin Cole hits a spike during a sweep of Ruskin on Tuesday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
In Tuesday’s home opener, Platte County’s senior setter and rightside hitter led an exceedingly dominant 25-0, 25-1, 25-5 sweep of Ruskin in a Suburban Conference White Division opener at Pirate Fieldhouse. She put up team-highs of 10 kills and eight service aces to go with seven assists and three digs.
Ruskin struggled in all aspects, but with only five returners and one still limited with injury, Platte County didn’t waste an opportunity to work on certain aspects of play and test the depth of inexperienced players.
“It’s helpful, honestly,” Bacon said. “It kind of lets us know what exactly we need to work on, what pieces we need to be ready for. We just need to work on our connection and get used to playing with each other.
“It’ll all come as the season goes.”
Platte County (5-1, 2-0 White Division) piled up and made just one attacking error in a notably efficient performance. This led to few rotations and long runs for the Pirates.
Platte County senior Evelyn Reith prepares to hit a serve against Ruskin on Tuesday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
In an anomalous moment for any level of play, Platte County posted a shutout in the first set starting with an initial kill before senior Evelyn Reith earned the final 24 service points in a row. She ended up with six of the Pirates’ 22 aces as one of seven players who appeared in the match seeing their first extended run at the varsity level.
“We were all super happy for us. It’s amazing chance to get. It’s awesome,” Bacon said.
Platte County ended up scoring the match’s first 36 points and then closed the second set on a 14-0 run with Bacon providing efficient service with a mix of short, placed serves and her normally paced challenging ones. This ended up limiting the attacking opportunities, but sophomore Ella Cruce, part of the two-setter formation for the Pirates this year, did put up 17 assists, while senior outside hitter Malin Cole and junior middle hitter Emma Brinkman added eight kills apiece.
There were 32 kills on 48 attempts with senior middle hitter Emma Macaluso, junior outside hitter Kate Brunner and Cruce adding two apiece. Cruce’s came on well-time dump sets.
In addition to Bacon, Platte County senior Ashleigh Cruce put up four aces in the third set with a deep rotation of players seeing the court. Gia DeRose, a senior libero and returning all-state performer, finished with three, while sophomore Mikah Buntz came up with the last.
Platte County senior libero Gia DeRose hits a pass against Ruskin on Tuesday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
“We called a lot of short serves tonight, which are things we don’t normally work on so it’s kind of like we’re just practicing it then and kind of working on it so we’re more comfortable in tighter (matches),” Bacon said.
DeRose and Ella Cruce led a rarely tested Platte County defense with four digs apiece. In addition, the Pirates did play sophomore Miah Omoike in the third set, her first appearance of the season after missing the season-opening Lincoln Northeast Blastoff Classic due to a lingering offseason injury. She made an immediate impact as a freshman attacker and made one dig against Ruskin.
Without Omoike, Cole shifted to the outside to help offset the loss of three-time all-state attacker Karlee Riggs with Bacon, Brunner and Brinkman also taking on bigger roles up front with Platte County facing a move up to Class 5 in this year’s postseason assignments. The Pirates have reached the Class 4 playoffs four times and the state semifinals three times in the past five seasons. This stretch also included one season in Class 5 that ended with a loss to Park Hill in the District 8 championship match.
Platte County junior Kate Brunner hits a spike against Ruskin on Tuesday at Pirate Fieldhouse.
“I think we learned a lot of new ways to make up for points,” Bacon said. “We had people in different spots. Things didn’t always go our way, but it was a good understanding that we can still make things happen in different ways.”
Platte County 3, Truman 0
The Pirates earned a second conference sweep on Thursday in Independence with a balanced offensive attack.
In a 25-16, 25-8, 25-13 win, Cole led five Platte County players with at least five kills while Ella Cruce (17), DeRose (12) and Bacon (10) all finished with double-digit assists. DeRose and Ella Cruce also led the Pirates with 13 digs apiece, while Bacon added eight.
Cole finished in double-digit kills for the second time this season with 10, while Brunner saw more rotations added eight for Platte County’s deep offense that again played without Omoike. The Pirates made only 11 attack errors with Bacon adding seven kills and Brinkman (six) and Macaluso (five) from their spots in the middle.
A third-year starter, Macaluso made a team-high three blocks at the net.
