Win the Moment

MINSTER - The Minster Wildcats were a point away from taking the first set against backyard rival New Bremen in Midwest Athletic Conference volleyball on Thursday night.

Cardinals coach Diana Kramer told her team to take it one point at a time, and the Cardinals did exactly that.

New Bremen rallied to take the first set 27-25 and then fended off the Wildcats over the next two sets, winning 25-22 and 25-14 to take the MAC opener between the teams at Wildcat Gymnasium.

The contest was highly competitive through all three sets with at least one tie in each set and at least two lead changes in the first two sets.

"This is a very typical MAC rivalry game," said Kramer after the contest. "This is what happens in the MAC, this is what happens when you play your big rival. I expect nothing else. Minster has great athletes. … They're young and keep getting better."

"The coaches and I were talking about how it wasn't even 8 p.m. yet," said Minster coach Cami Garman, noting that the match went just under 75 minutes despite the battle. "We had two long sets, but a lot of quick points. Not a lot of volleys. Our front rows handled the ball well tonight and ended rallies quickly."

New Bremen (4-0, 1-0 MAC) looked prepared to make it a quick night in the opening set, jumping out to a 6-1 lead thanks to kills from Ellie Tangeman and a ace by Amelia Dammeyer. Minster slowly crawled back and earned its first tie of the set at 10-10 after a kill by Lilly Barhorst before Kayla Lamm's block gave Minster its first lead at 11-10.

The back-and-forth play appeared done as Minster led 24-22 and had the serve for set point, but Dammeyer got the kill to keep the set going. Melina Schrader followed with a kill to tie things at 24-all.

Minster got the lead and set-point serve back when Jayden Clune quick-set the ball over, but a tremendous save by the Cardinals on the ensuing serve went over the net and hit open floor to tie the set again at 25-all. Schrader then served back-to-back aces to give the Cardinals the opening nod.

"You just have to be confident about what you're doing," said Kramer. "You have to focus on the moment. You can't focus on the past or what happens in 2-3 points. You have to worry about this moment. Win this moment, then we can worry about the next moment when it gets here."

"One of the things we were disappointed about in the first set was getting down 6-1 to start and lost by two," said Garman. "And we even had the hammer (serve) up two (at set point). We're a little inexperienced, a little young. That might have shown in those tight points tonight."

The Cardinals built up another lead in the second set at 14-7. Minster got back and cut the margin to 18-15, but could get no closer than 24-22 down the stretch before Schrader's kill made it a 2-0 match lead for the visitors.

Minster (2-3, 0-1 MAC) got an ace from Clune to start the third set, but the Cardinals rattled off five straight points to put the game out of reach as Minster could only manage to get as close as three points the rest of the set. An ace by Chloe Bornhorst wrapped up the match.

"Volleyball is a game of mistakes and we made our fair share and Minster made a couple," said Kramer. "But we continued to do what we do and have to make our adjustments. … As the night went on, I thought we got better and better."

"This is the best we've played all season," said Garman. "To able to play it against a team like Bremen. I'm happy with the progress we're making."

Schrader had nine kills, 19 assists and eight aces for New Bremen. Mia Schmitmeyer had eight kills and Kaylee Freund had six kills and five blocks.

Barhorst led Minster with 10 kills. Clune had 19 assists and Alyssa Niemeyer had 11 digs.

Both teams return to the court on Saturday. New Bremen hosts Jackson Center while Minster makes the short trek to Shelby County to play in the Lehman Invitational.