Little has been able to stop second-ranked Fleming this year, but the Wildcats did run into one team that could on Oct. 5.

When the Wildcats traveled to No. 3 Haxtun that day, they were met with strong game play on every corner of the court. The Fightin' Bulldogs, however, won out in the end with tight set scores of 29-27, 25-21 and 25-22.

Junior Kally Kirkwood led the Wildcats on the attack with 15 kills, a metric that senior Whitney Chintala followed up with 13 of her own. Junior Lexi Schaefer paced the back row defense with 23 digs as Kirkwood added 14 more. Kirkwood and Chintala aided the offense with 19 and 13 assists, respectively.

But, like every great volleyball team, the Wildcats knew how to bounce back in style. They welcomed Class 1A's No. 1 Briggsdale last Friday and sent them packing after five sets. Fleming mastered the marathon match with a 3-2 win.

The Falcons opened play with a tough 25-22 victory over the Wildcats in set one, but Fleming surged in the two frames after that to take a 2-1 lead with 25-8 and 25-18 scores. Briggsdale, not content to lose in four sets, stole the fourth by a 25-19 final before the Wildcats put an end to that with a 16-14 ending in the fifth frame.

Once again, Kirkwood and Chintala took charge of the offense with 32 and 23 kills, respectively, as they added 18 and 30 assists. On defense, Schaefer notched 34 digs to Chintala's 23 as senior Zoey Vandenbark (17 digs), Kirkwood (15 digs) and senior Samantha Pope (13 digs) contributed big numbers too.

Fleming's tough stretch of opponents isn't over yet.

The Wildcats hosted 2A top dog Sedgwick County on Thursday night, which entered the contest with a 15-1 record. The Cougars' lone loss of the season came at the hands of a team out of Nebraska.

Friday, they'll welcome the 7-11 Prairie Mustangs for a conference match.