Good Kill: Senior Kylee Gooding Reaches 500 Career Kills

By Makenna Bauer, Staff Writer|October 3, 2018

Going into the Lady Eagles match against the Philipsburg-Osceola Mounties, senior Kylee Gooding had no idea how close she was to her 500th kill.

Gooding hit the milestone during the second set and found out about her achievement after the second set.  She is the first player in Tyrone volleyball history to achieve 500 kills.

After the game, the whole team came out with posters and balloons congratulating Gooding on her achievement.

“Getting my 500 kills is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s cool to look back and see the struggles I had to face,” said Gooding after the game, “[Some of them being] coaches not believing in me and bad teammates, to now where I can finally call my team a family. I couldn’t have done it without them. No words can explain how excited I am to be the first to get this school record.”

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Getting my 500 kills is a once in a lifetime opportunity. It’s cool to look back and see the struggles I had to face. [Some of them being] coaches not believing in me and bad teammates, to now where I can finally call my team a family. I couldn’t have done it without them. No words can explain how excited I am to be the first to get this school record

— Senior Kylee Gooding

In the first set, the Lady Eagle and Lady Mounties went toe to toe, battling for each point.

The Lady Eagles started to pull ahead behind the serving of sophomore Mattie Cherry, who would rack up 14 service points. The ending score was 25-18 with the Lady Eagles taking the first set.

The second set, however, the Lady Eagles started off strong and took the set with a score of 25-11.

“Winning 25-11 gave the whole team a boost of energy to get the win in three sets,” said sophomore Makenna Bauer.

Finishing off the Lady Mounties 25-18 in the third set was a huge success for the Lady Eagles.

“I think we played very well. We didn’t let the Lady Mounties go on service runs and we put the pressure on them. We knew the players we had to look out for and we shut them down early,” said sophomore Courtney Williams.

“The girls are fun to watch and they’re beginning to gel well together. We have some small things to fix, but we are on the right track for the second half of the season. The younger players are beginning to step up and fill their roles which is great to see,” said Head Coach Mike Kraft.

Gooding led the team with 19 kills and Bauer had 5.  Gooding also recorded 8 service points while Bauer and junior Ebonee Rice each contributed 7. Rice had 18 digs while Cherry served up 25 assists. Williams stood tall and tailed up 8 blocks at the net.

The Lady Eagles are now entering the second half of the season, playing each team again.