Hanover Girls Coming up Big in the Early Season

As the 2025-26 season started, the defending 1A D-2 champions Hanover picked up right where they left off with pure domination.

The Lady Cats started their season with a win against Troy behind a pair of 14 point efforts from Drew Bruna and Trinity Schlabach including a 4 of 5 night at the free throw line from Bruna. Meanwhile Einslee Stallbaumer caught fire from behind the arc with 9 of her 11 points coming from deep.

Nora Heiman notched 4 points including 2 at the free throw line where Hanover appeared 17 times. Add in a pair of old-fashioned three point plays, one from Leigha Jueneman, the other via Ally Scheele and the Hanover offense looked crisp in the early going.

Defensively, Hanover kept Troy to single digit quarters twice and held anyone not named H'Leigha Idol to 8 points as the Lady Wildcats defeated Troy 52-35.

Tuesday's game against Nemaha Central took a very different approach for Hanover yet still the Lady Wildcats weren't shaken as they defeated the Thunder 41-31. Hanover held the advantage at the free throw line by quite the margin.

Chris Beikmann's team was 11 for 15 at the charity stripe with Drew Bruna earning 5 of her 12 points, and Einslee Stallbaumer earning all 3 of hers as well. Meanwhile Nemaha Central would go empty on the night on the freebies. 12 points would make Drew Bruna the leading scorer for the game as she hit from inside and outside as well with a 3 pointer in the 2nd quarter. Aly Scheele would finish with six, five each from Leigha Jueneman and Trinity Schlabach. Nora Heiman earned four as did Gracie Bruna who hit 2 of 3 free throws in this game. Einslee Stallbaumer finished with three points and a 4th quarter by Kennedy Cohorst world wrap up the scoring for Hanover. It was a terrific week for the Lady Cats as they have started the season unscathed. With upcoming games against Washington County as well as a pair of Nebraska schools, Thayer Central and Diller-Odell all coming before the holiday break, Hanover hopes to continue this trend as they get into the meat of the TVL coming in January.