Welcome to the new Lightning Buzz newsletter that will highlight sports news for Grand Island Lutheran High School. We are glad you are here. During the fall we will have bi-weekly updates for our subscribers and school patrons, starting today with Issue One.

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Resilience has been the core trait for the Grand Island Lutheran volleyball team so far this season.

Under second-year head coach David Bremer, the Lightning is off to a 4-2 start. They opened their campaign with consecutive victories over Pleasanton, Silver Lake and Harvard before suffering a 3-0 loss at Bruning-Davenport/Shickley on Sept. 3.

During Tuesday night’s Grand Island Lutheran Triangular, the squad again showcased its ability to respond to adversity. After falling to Riverside (5-1) by identical 25-16 set scores, the Lightning regrouped in the final match to sweep Elba 25-10, 25-12 behind the support of a boisterous home crowd.

“We have shown the ability to bounce back,” Bremer said regarding his team’s early season strength. “We’ve been starting really slow. In our first game against Pleasanton, we were down 10-1 and bounced back. Even against Harvard and Silver Lake, we started slow and were able to overcome that.”

In Tuesday’s loss to Riverside, senior Abigail Uden registered eight kills while freshman setter Ellie Keasling handed out 14 assists.

The Lightning found its groove in the nightcap against Elba, storming out to leads of 9-3 and 19-8 in the first set. In the second set, Lutheran High erased a 10-9 deficit by closing the match on a 16-2 run.

Uden posted another eight-kill performance, junior Lauren Smith added six kills, four aces and a block and Keasling dished out eight assists.

Lutheran High’s early success has been powered by balanced contributions. Through the first four matches, Smith led the attack with 41 kills, backed by Abby Van Bibber with 27 and Uden with 20.

“Lauren Smith has taken a huge jump and throughout the summer, Abigail Uden played the way she did tonight against Elba, where there were times we just had to lean on her,” Bremer said. “We know what we have with Abby Van Bibber from what she did last year. She started a little slow this year, but I think she rose to the occasion tonight.”

Keasling, who entered the week with 93 assists, has stepped into the primary setter role with impressive composure and court awareness for a freshman.

“Just to see where Ellie was at the beginning of the summer — where she really had just started setting — to where she is today, the sky’s the limit for her,” Bremer said. “She’s got that length and the ability to just make plays.”

Bremer is instilling an aggressive mentality in his attackers. Instead of relying on safe free balls or tip plays, the Lightning players are encouraged to take big swings.

“When I first watched our team, there were a lot of opportunities for us to be aggressive and swing at out-of-system balls that they hadn’t in the past,” Bremer said. “It’s something we work on regularly — it’s not even a question for the girls as to what I want from them in those situations — and now, they have that mentality.”

As September rolls on, Bremer remains confident that his team’s willingness to learn and respond will pay off later in the season.

“We’re going to grow,” Bremer said. “I think we’ll be a completely different team by the end of the year.”

After a 2025 season of no official varsity football, Grand Island Lutheran started again in 2026 with a resounding first win over Santee, 72-14 on August 28 to open the season.

It was a long time coming for head coach Kevin Liess and his team.

“We were really excited to get back on the field in varsity competition,” Liess said after the Lightning played five games last year against a mix of junior varsity and varsity competition. “It’s an exciting year because we have nearly doubled out roster size and the opportunities we have had in practice have been valuable.

“We actually got to the point in practice where we were ready to go hit somebody else.”

And, the Lightning were thankful for that opportunity. They jumped on Santee early and had a 40-0 lead after the first quarter before cruising to the win in the opening game.

The Lightning ran for 168 yards and passed for 53 in the win, while they spread 15 rushing attempts over seven different ball carriers. Junior Xander Riveria carried three times for 31 yards and had two touchdowns, while quarterback Luke Olson had a 37-yard touchdown run as well.

Seth Reynolds and Jack Tonniges also had a pair of touchdowns for GI Lutheran, while Reynolds also caught a 21-yard touchdown pass from Uriah Fosket in the win.

“We had played Santee last year, but we knew they would be improved this year,” Liess noted. “I challenged our guys and I was proud of them that we really took care of business early in the game.”

On September 3rd, the Lightning hosted state-ranked Riverside and came up on the short end of a 71-30 decision as the Chargers proved they could make a deep run in the six-man playoffs.

While Lutheran hung right with the Chargers in the first quarter — down just 13-12 — it was a non-conventional play that flipped the momentum to Riverside’s side. After scoring to go up 20-12, Riverside attempted seven consecutive onside kicks (recovering four) that helped them put the game out of reach.

“We knew coming in that they were going to be physical and ram it right at us,” Liess said. “I was really proud of our effort but we learned that we need to be a little bit more physical. We also talk with the team that at some point you will face adversity.

“Never would I have figured the adversity we saw would be seven straight onside kicks. But there it was. And, it got contagious and we struggled. So that’s on me to get us better. We rep that stuff everyday in practice and will get better at it.”

Olson threw for 135 yards and two touchdowns while also running for a pair of scores and 40 yards on seven carries. Fosket had three catches for 69 yards and Riveria added two for 38 more yards and a score.

The Lightning have two more tests against state-ranked teams over the next two weeks. On Friday, they travel to Lewiston (2-0), who is ranked 10th in the nebpreps.com Coaches Poll and next week they will face High Plains, who is ranked 10th by the Omaha World-Herald.

Tuesday’s Centura Cross Country Invite left Grand Island Lutheran coach Daniel Gibson with an early-season smile on his face.

The Lightning — with three sophomores and two freshman on their five-man roster — took second place; losing a tiebreaker with Shelton (based on fourth runner placement) in the team race.

“It was a really good starting point for our team,” Gibson said. The Lightning kicked off the season last week at the Vince Zavala Invitational hosted by Grand Island Northwest. “We are a young team and not really peaking in our training yet.

“I think we have a chance to be a really good team by the end of the season.”

Freshman Michael Hoins led the Lightning at Centura with a fifth place time of 18:28.80 just ahead of sophomore Darius Uden in sixth at 18:33.96. In Class D, the team score is the three lowest places with Alex Augustin adding a 11th place finish for the Lightning (19:34.94).

Jesse Canady and Daniel Bader finished 28th and 31st for Lutheran.

It’s just the beginning of what Gibson hopes could be a season that builds momentum for the Lightning, who finished second in the Goldenrod Conference championship last year.

The coach thinks they could be a top-ten team in the state by year’s end, but will be battling with defending state champion Doniphan-Trumbull and three other top-eight teams (McCool Junction, Tri-County and Freeman) in their district to get to state at Kearney Country Club.

“We are in one of the toughest districts in Class D,” Gibson said. “We feel like we could be pushing for top-ten and still not make it to state, but we just want to keep working on our times and see what happens to push those other teams at the end of the year.”

The Lightning will have their next race on September 17 when they travel to Valley View Country Club for the Central City Invitational, followed by the Doniphan-Trumbull meet on September 24.