Grizzlies finish 3-1 at Ramada Inn Classic in Columbus, NE

COLUMBUS, Neb. — Butler volleyball capped off a great weekend with two Saturday sweeps and winning three of four matches over the weekend in the Ramada Inn Classic hosted by Central Community College.

On Friday, the Grizzlies finished 1-1 on the day against NJCAA Division II competition. Butler won the first match 3-1 (25-20, 22-25, 25-18, 25-19) over Northeast (NE), but fell in the second match to North Platte (NE) 3-0 (19-25, 25-27, 23-25).

Against Northeast, Amalie Rupertova led the Grizzlies on the attack with 15 kills hitting .414 and being a rock on the back row digging up 20 balls. Morgan Bryand finished with 11 kills and 19 digs while Keera Parks and Makaila Keith both had eight kills in the match. Milayna Hollinger had a team high four blocks while adding in seven kills. Sydney Scanlon ended the match with 47 assists. Butler held Northeast to just a .110 hitting percentage in the match.

In the North Platte match, the Grizzlies suffered unforced serving and hitting errors, giving North Platte an open door to jump out to a 25-19 opening set lead. Butler hung around in sets two and three giving themselves a chance late but fell short 27-25 in set two and 25-23 in the final set. Amalie Rupertova, Milayna Hollinger and Jaryn Benning all finished with a team high seven kills. Rupertova led in digs with 12 followed by Montana Soderberg at 11 and Morgan Bryand and Sydney Hefty both chalked up 10 a piece.

Day two of the Ramada Inn Classic saw the Grizzlies sweep both matches on the day defeating Fort Scott 3-0 (25-26, 25-16, 25-16) in the 9:00am match and beating the tournament host, Central Community College 3-0 (25-14, 25-23, 25-22) to end the weekend.

The Grizzlies had a balanced attack in the match against Forst Scott as both Amalie Rupertova and Jaryn Benning had nine kills and five digs. The difference is the match was the Grizzlies net presence. Butler finished with 16.5 blocks completely shutting down Fort Scott's offensive attack. Milayna Hollinger had a season high nine blocks in the match leading all players. Keera Parks finished with six while Amalie Rupertova, Morgan Bryand and Jaryn Benning both added four each. Sydney Scanlon added two blocks on top of her 30 assists and eight digs. Montana Soderberg finished with a team high 17 digs in the match.

Match four on the weekend saw the Grizzlies post their best offensive game of the weekend as they cruised to a 3-0 win over the tournament host. Butler hit a weekend high .315% while finishing with 47 kills. Morgan Bryand led the charge with 12 kills while Amalie Rupertova was close behind finishing with 11 and 15 digs. Milayna Hollinger and Jaryn Benning each had nine a piece. Butler setter Sydney Scanlon even got in on the action with three kills on top of her 38 assists.

Butler (12-9, 4-6) will host two conference matches at home this week as they play host to Dodge City (3-9, 0-11) on Wednesday, Oct. 9 at 6:30 p.m. and will finish the week taking on Garden City (5-20, 3-4) on Friday, Oct. 11 at 6:30pm.