On Friday Oct. 12, the Discoverer volleyball team traveled to Scottsbluff, Nebraska for the conference tournament. On Saturday Oct. 13, the Discoverers began the tournament with a win against Scottsbluff 2-0.

Second, they played Gering and won 2-0. This exciting victory sent them off to the championship game. Junior Kylie Wisehart said, “The highlight for the tournament for me was probably just all of the games. We worked together so well as a team and won by a lot in all our games. It was probably the most fun I have had playing volleyball in a long time.”

Last but not least, the Discoverers competed for first place against the Hastings Tigers, a team that has defeated them twice previously this season. However, this time, Columbus beat the Tigers in two sets! Coach Otten said, “I am most proud of the constant focus and belief of this team over the weekend. They set their goal, and you could see in their eyes that they were accepting nothing less than victory.”

Sophomore Jaleigh Adams said, “The main reason we won is because we all communicated very well with each other and never got down on ourselves.” This is the first time since 2012 that the Discoverer volleyball team has won the conference tournament.

Adams said the highlight of the tournament for her personally was beating Hastings because she had some great kills. She also said Hastings was the toughest game to win because she had to focus on blocking their biggest outside hitter.

The Discoverers are now preparing for districts, where they will have to play higher ranked teams. Coach Otten said, “The big thing we steadily need to improve and focus on is effective communication. We did well this past weekend, now we have to continue it in order to win in our upcoming matches against more ranked opponents.”