Redskins drop Cards in three

ST. HENRY - St. Henry's quest for regular-season perfection continued Thursday night.

The Redskins looked the part of the top-ranked team in Division III, too, stepping onto the floor dialed in and focused and handing visiting New Bremen a three-set loss by scores 25-18, 25-16 and 25-21 in Midwest Athletic Conference play.

Claudia Heitkamp tallied 10 kills, Olivia Niekamp added eight, and the Redskins had 10 aces as a team on their way to win No. 19 against a Cardinal team that entered with just one league loss.

"Every team on our schedule is really, really good," St. Henry coach Diana Kramer said. "Every team has great players, is well-coached. The only way we can beat teams like that is being focused and playing from the start and not letting the momentum or all the hype or everything get to us. We talked about being dialed in and focused from the very start tonight, and they absolutely 100 percent did that."

Set one featured five ties until the match reached a 7-all score. St. Henry tried to pull away a couple times. Back-to-back aces by Olivia Niekamp gave the Redskins a 10-7 edge but three straight hitting errors offset those points. St. Henry finally gained control near the midway point thanks to the serving of Katherine Davis and Ellie Stammen, who combined for three aces. St. Henry closed on a 12-6 run to claim a 25-18 decision.

The Red and White never trailed in set two. Stammen, who finished with seven kills and four aces, picked up two aces to give her team a quick 4-0 lead. New Bremen didn't help itself early on, either, with an abundance of service and hitting errors. The Redskins grabbed their first double-digit lead at 13-3 on a Niekamp kill. The Cardinals charged back to trim the lead to 19-15. However, one more Niekamp kill and three more New Bremen hitting errors finished the set off at 25-16.

St. Henry again jumped out to a 4-0 lead in set three before New Bremen countered with a Paige Jones kill and then an ace and a kill by Devon Heitkamp to make the score 4-3. That was the closest the Cardinals got. Each time the Cardinals got within two after that, St. Henry had an answer. Kills by Savannah Wourms and Heitkamp sealed the set and match.

"Paige Jones is one of the top-five players in the state of Ohio," Kramer said. "But our game plan is to win the first contest. When we go back to the service line, we're treating that like that's our first point of attack, so when we go back there, we're trying to make somebody move, trying to get them out of system, putting a little extra pressure on them. That was the difference-maker tonight."

The loss for the Cardinals comes on the heels of losing tough matches to state-ranked teams from Coldwater and Lehman. They dropped to 12-8 overall.

"(We needed to improve on) hitting and serving," New Bremen coach Theresa Jenkins said. "I felt like we weren't really focused coming off our five-set Lehman loss. We were way too tight. We got way too frustrated. We were trying to stay calm and stay collected, and in doing that, we went too far the other way and lost some of our intensity."

Jones and Kaitlyn Ahrns each had a team-leading nine kills in the loss. Jones also contributed 12 digs and Devon Heitkamp led the team with 13 digs.

Jenkins said they will try to right the ship and stay positive as her team gears for what they are hoping will be a long postseason run. The Cardinals finish the year with a pair of home games against Delphos St. John's (Tuesday) and then Parkway (Thursday).

"This was really strong test for where we're at and where we need to be," Jenkins said. "We're trying to get out of focusing on the negative, trying to just push the positive. This is what we did right. This is what we need to build on. These are the things we need to do to make a good tournament run."
  The Redskins are obviously happy to be unbeaten and are hoping the regular season ends with a MAC championship. After traveling to play Leipsic on Saturday, they wrap up the season at home against Versailles on Tuesday and then travel to play at Coldwater on Thursday.

"Volleyball is such a crazy sport," Kramer said. "To be undefeated now is just a testament to my seniors and their leadership and the underclassman and how they respond to them. They know that the only place we want to be undefeated is in postseason, so we're treating every game like its a postseason game.

"I couldn't be prouder of how we work as a team. There's no all-star on this team - every night there's someone else leading us in kills, somebody else is leading us in digs, somebody else is leading us in points scored, and that's what makes a great team."