Wildcats roll past Roughriders

MINSTER - Minster volleyball coach Cami Garman labeled last Saturday's victory over Celina as an early-season "momentum-changer" for her girls.

For those who witnessed the Wildcats tangle with the St. Marys Roughriders in Minster Tuesday night, there was little doubt Garman was exactly right.

Despite losing the first set to the Roughriders 16-25, the Wildcats stormed back to take the next three games 25-18, 25-23, and 25-19. With the win, Minster improved to 5-6 on the season, while St. Marys slipped to 8-3 overall.

"We knew that the two Angstmann girls would be a handful and they also have a few others who can really attack so we felt we needed to slow that down," Garman said. "We made some adjustments to limit some of their attacking, and our girls managed to hold them off with solid defense."

The Wildcats jumped in front 9-3 in the opening set before the Roughriders pounded their way back to knot the game at 9-9 fueled by several Wildcat defensive errors. St. Marys soon took the 14-13 lead and never looked back, benefitting from nine straight service points from senior Natalie Kuenning before rolling to the 25-16 win.

"We were down early in the first game, but stepped up our serve receive and it really opened things up for our hitters," St. Marys coach Monica VanderHorst said. "We weren't sure Erika Angstmann was going to play tonight after rolling her ankle in practice yesterday, but she came out strong and played a great game."

The Wildcats established themselves from the start in the second set, fighting off several Roughrider rallies in the early going but never relinquishing the lead. With Minster leading 12-11, senior LeAnn Huelsman tallied six straight service points, which helped the the Wildcats extend their advantage to 23-14 thanks to a spike from senior Hannah Schmitmeyer.

Minster rode the momentum through the first half of the third set, taking a 10-5 command, but St. Marys scored eight of the next 10 points to go in front 13-12. The Roughriders padded their cushion to as many as five points, but the Wildcats rallied when it counted and notched the final three points of the game for the 25-22 triumph.

"We played with heart in the first game, but after that we didn't play together as a team" VanderHorst said. "We simply tipped the ball over too many times and let them control the tempo of the offense and we couldn't recover."

The fourth set started with four lead-changes and six ties before, St. Marys built their edge to three points at 16-13. Minster came back to tie the set at 17-17 before Wildcat junior Jordyn Heitbrink took control down the stretch, logging five kills, two blocks and a successful tip to seal the victory.

"The girls did a great job of playing mentally-tough tonight, particularly in the second and third games," Garman said. "We got behind in the fourth game but the girls stayed relaxed. It was great to see Jordyn sort of take things over in the end. It was the kind of game I have been waiting for her to have and she certainly came through."

Heitbrink paced the Wildcats with 19 kills in the triumph, including 10 in the final set, while St. Marys' Erika Angstmann countered with 23 kills, setting a new school record for kills in a career with 1,021 eclipsing the previous mark of 1,007 held by Bluffton University senior Jenny Brown.

Both teams return to league play on Thursday. Minster travels to New Knoxville for an MAC contest and St. Marys hosts Kenton in WBL action.