Lincoln Southwest’s Ellie Eckman turned toward her head coach with a smile on her face, ready to shake off a rare mishit.
The Silver Hawk setter, whose first attempt at a dump kill fell out of play, converted at the next opportunity and marched over to her bench to dance in celebration.
Eckman’s control of the offense was evident as she led a commanding performance from Class A No. 6 Lincoln Southwest in its 3-0 (25-21, 25-19, 25-17) sweep of No. 10 Lincoln Southeast on Tuesday.
The senior setter’s standout evening began with her singing the national anthem prior to the match, and it ended with her totaling nearly 30 assists, four kills, two blocks and two aces.
Outside the gritty work which Eckman put in, digging attacks and stopping others at the net, she passed with precision time and time again.
From launching back row attacks to delivering soft touch passes and alternating between hitters, Eckman ensured the Southeast (13-7) block was continually on its heels.
“One thing Ellie does is that she just has good court awareness,” Lincoln Southwest head coach Jessica Kirkendall said.
“I don’t even have to tell her who to set, because she just knows, ‘Okay, this person’s really swinging well and I’m going to give it back to her, or if I want her to continue swinging well, I’m going to have to give it to someone else to make sure we’re keeping the blockers honest.’”
According to Kirkendall, that high-level understanding was built over several years on the practice court, where Eckman backed up former all-state setter Malayah Long, who’s now at Michigan State.
Four different Southwest (11-2) players had five or more kills in the match, and none was a bigger beneficiary of Eckman’s standout performance than senior outside hitter Alivia Gustafson.
Gustafson entered the evening with the sixth-most kills in Class A, and she added 18 more in yet another Silver Hawk victory over their rivals; per MaxPreps, Southeast’s last win over Southwest on the volleyball court was back in 2016.
Tuesday’s victory also marked a positive return to action for Southwest, which had lost its first two matches of the season against Lincoln East and Papillion-La Vista over the weekend.
“I believe in good losses — obviously, we don’t want to lose — but we learned a lot over the weekend and we were able to bounce back,” Kirkendall said. “We did have one (player) out due to injury, so they adjusted really well; it didn’t matter who was on the court, they were going to find a way to get it done.”
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Luke Mullin
Husker football/baseball reporter
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