It was a senior night sweep for Holton volleyball on Tuesday as the Wildcats won their fifth and sixth straight Big 7 League matches.  Despite trailing early in every set, Holton responded to complete night with a 25-17 and 25-20 win in the first match and then rallied in the second  match to come away with a 23-25, 25-16, 25-14 triumph.  

Holton did score the first three points of the evening with Tabor Barta serving and Paige Crouch putting away a big kill.  However, ACCHS tied the game at five then went ahead 11-7 behind four straight serves from Georgia Appel.  When the Cats got side-out, Shay Tanking got hot and served 10 consecutive times to put the home team aheaed 17-11.  Emma Reith added four more serves to give Holton their biggest lead at 22-12 before closing out set one 25-17.  

ACCHS took a 7-4 lead in game two before a Holton timeout as Katie Beien delivered a couple kills and serves and the Tigers capped a six-point run at 10-4.  Holton battled back to tie the game at 18 and went ahead for the first time at 19-18 and led 23-18 after Tanking served six straight and helped the Cats close the match with a 25-20 win.  

Following senior night festivities and a starting lineup that included all six Holton seniors, ACCHS again jumped to a 5-2 lead behind Lacey Christie serving, and was up 10-5 after Sara Johnson delivered a couple points.  ACCHS had a big lead of 12-6 before Tanking again served six in a row and Maleah Price came through with a trio of power points to pull Holton within 12-11.  The Cats tied the score at 15 and 17 but could never take the lead and had several errors which allowed the Tigers to retake a 21-17 advantage.  With backs against the wall, Barta served three times and Holton tied the score at 23 on a kill by Crouch, but ACCHS got the final two points of set one.  

ACCHS had a 3-0 lead in set two, but HOlton went up 5-4 and never looked back as Regan Baum took over and delivered multiple kills in the final two games of the night.  Baum put away two in a row to give Holton an 8-5 lead and it was 11-6 before a timeout. A great hustle play by a retreating Baum, Tanking and Price put Holton up 14-8 and Baum delivered more impressive kills to stretch the Wildcat leads at 18-12, 21-13 and 24-16 before taking the 25-16 triumph.  

Holton got off to a slightly better start in the decisive third set and went on a run to go ahead 12-6 before a timeout, but Tanking stretched the margin to 15-6 with five consecutive serves and great net blocking by Josie Marriott adn Danika Hickman.  Barta delivered an ace to push the lead to double-digits at 18-8 and Price added a kill at 20-8 to continue the momentum before the Wildcats closed with a 25-14 win.  

Holton has now won six straight Big 7 matches and is locked into third in the League with  a 9-5 record and trip to face winless Hiawatha next week.  The Wildcats, who host sub-state, are now 16-14 overall and also got good play from their six seniors: Reith, Price and Tanking as well as Janae Skaggs, Emma Gilliland and Sarah Lierz, who played very scrappy and shared setting duties with Barta on the night.  Holton's depth utilizing 13 girls on varsity proved to be huge as the Wildcats were able to dominate the final two sets of the night.  

ACCHS is now 4-8 in the Big 7 and 9-13 overall, but only used one or two players off the bench.