By Reagan Hoverman

Prescott’s impressive string of both conference and non-conference games continued with a sweep of the Ellsworth Panthers in the annual Highway 10 rivalry game on Thursday, Sept. 29, in Ellsworth.

The Thursday night rivalry game was a battle between the teams at the top and bottom of the Middle Border Conference, as Prescott entered the game as winners in 10 of its last 12 games and 3-0 in league play while the Panthers went into the contest 0-3 in conference play.

Prescott’s sweep, which included set victories of 25-9, 25-11, and 25-15 improved the Cardinals’ overall record to 21-10 and 4-0 in league play. Prescott first- year head coach Tracey Budworth spoke about getting the victory in the biggest rivalry game of the season.

“The goal was to play our game and we talked a lot about never underestimating an opponent,” Budworth said. “We came in saying that we weren’t going to think about records or anything. We just wanted to play our game and play fiercely and we did that.”

The Cardinals certainly didn’t waste any time getting going in the debut set. Prescott jumped out to a 6-1 lead over Ellsworth which forced an early timeout by Panthers’ head coach Allison Odmark. Ellsworth slowly chipped away at the lead and eventually got it to within two points, 8-6, before the Cardinals went on another run.

Prescott has been excellent throughout the season at scoring and putting runs together in the middling portions of sets. That aspect remained true on Thursday night as a small scoring run helped Prescott secure a 25-9 victory in the opening set.

The second set in the best- of-five series was more of the same. Prescott jumped out to another big lead, 7-1, which forced another Ellsworth timeout. The Panthers mounted a couple of small scoring runs, but Prescott’s dominance, particularly at the net with junior Reese Ptacek, led to another lopsided victory. Prescott’s 25-11 victory in the second set made it a 2-0 series.

Throughout the third set, coach Budworth rotated in several bench players that don’t typically see a lot of varsity time. Regular varsity rotation players such as Natalie Ptacek didn’t play in the third set because the match was all but over.

Prescott grabbed another lead early in the third set before Ellsworth eventually battled back to tie it 11-11. However, strong serving and multiple aces helped Prescott pull away and secure the 2515 victory, giving the Cardinals a 3-0 sweep of the Panthers.

“In the third set I made a few changes and it was a good night to get some of the bench players in,” Budworth said. “Our next three matches are going to be tough with Osceola, Altoona and Somerset. We’ve got three tough matchups coming and the plan is to get ourselves prepared for that. That conference championship is still the goal.”

Early in the 2022 season, Prescott struggled with serving. The Cardinals regularly donated points by serving the ball into the net or driving it way deep out of bounds. Since the start of the conference schedule, that home-opening sweep of Baldwin-Woodville, Prescott has seen excellent serving and is even averaging over a 90% success rate.

That stark turnaround has helped Prescott go from what looked like a .500 team at the beginning of the season to a potential conference championship team now with less than two weeks left in the regular season. Coach Budworth spoke about how serving has completely changed her team.

“Our goal has been to be 90% or above, but we’ve had some matches of 97% or 100%. We went 100% against Baldwin-Woodville, which is pretty unheard of,” Budworth said. “We’ve maintained 90s and we had a ton of aces. Aubryn Ennenga and Natalie (Ptacek) are my two strongest servers.”

While Prescott celebrated winning the annual rivalry game, the Ellsworth Panthers had to group and do some analysis. Coach Odmark of the Ellsworth Panthers spoke about the loss, especially to the best team in the conference. She spoke about the goal for the night against Prescott and how energy was important for her team – regardless of a win or loss.

“The past couple of days we were working on big energy and just celebrating any point that came our way,” Odmark said. “At times our energy wasn’t awesome, but overall it’s much better than it has been in the past. That was our focus today, doing things we can euort-wise and energy-wise.”

Ellsworth has yet to win a game in the Middle Border Conference this season, but if the Panthers are going to do it, the best chance is at home against the Amery Warriors on Tuesday, Oct. 4. The Panthers and Warriors are the only two winless teams in league action this year. Odmark spoke about potentially getting the first conference win in two years.

“We play Amery on Tuesday for senior night and our goal is to beat Amery,” Odmark said. “That’s the team last year, we went to five, that's the goal. We want to beat Amery. Baby steps like that are important.”

Ellsworth will get prepared for its clash with the Amery Warriors on Tuesday, Oct. 4, in Ellsworth. The Prescott Cardinals’ next contest is scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 4, at home against the Somerset Spartans. Both of those matches are slated to begin at 7 p.m.

Prescott junior setter Katressa Syverson serves during the Cardinals’ 3-0 sweep of the Ellsworth Panthers on Thursday, Sept. 29. Syverson and the Cardinals recorded several aces en route to the Hwy. 10 rivalry game victory. Photo by Reagan Hoverman