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St. Henry's Ellie Fullenkamp (5) and Morgan Baumer (3) go up for the block on Minster's Lauren Tyler during Thursday's MAC volleyball match in St. Henry. The Redskins swept the Wildcats to keep a share of the conference lead.
ST. HENRY - A week after knocking off New Bremen and a week before traveling to undefeated Coldwater, St. Henry was not going to overlook Minster.
The Redskins took care of business Thursday evening at the St. Henry Middle School Gymnasium, dispatching the Wildcats in straight sets, 25-11, 25-12, 25-13.
"We came in with the mindset that we wanted to play our game from beginning to end, control the match, eliminate some of our errors, and I think we did a good job of doing that," St. Henry coach Tricia Rosenbeck said.
The Redskins, 9-1 overall and 2-0 in the Midwest Athletic Conference, finished strong in each set.
Minster (4-4, 0-2 MAC) hung around early in the opener, trailing 7-6, but St. Henry finished with an 18-5 run. Ellie Fullenkamp finished the first set with five kills for the Redskins.
The second set featured a similar story line. Minster trailed 7-6 before Brianna Mangen served up six unanswered points for St. Henry. Mylee Kramer and Karlee Buschur had big kills down the stretch and the Redskins pulled away again.
St. Henry's Molly Wendel goes up for the spike during Thursday's match with Minster.
The Wildcats led 4-3 to start the third set before Morgan Baumer picked up a couple of service aces in a 6-0 St. Henry run. Baumer also has several kills down the stretch to help ice the win.
"All of our hitters are playing really well right now, so that lets our setter run whatever she wants to," Rosenbeck said. "And our middle is so strong right now, which really opens up the floor on the other side of the net."
Fullenkamp led a balanced hitting attack for the winners with 16 kills. Baumer recorded a double-double with 11 kills and 15 digs. Lauren Thieman recorded 32 assists and 12 digs.
"St. Henry is a really good team," Minster coach Chelsea McGhee said. "Their defense is solid. Their libero (Rya Buschur) is amazing. She's not letting anything drop. She's diving after every single ball. You don't think there's any way she's going to get it, and she picks it up."
"Rya is awesome," Rosenbeck added. "She never lets the ball hit the floor without her body going for it, and she's been fantastic this season."
Minster's Keri Heckman watches the ball as she prepares to serve against St. Henry.
Minster was led by Keri Heckman and Kiersten with five kills each. Brooklyn Osterloh had 10 assists and seven digs, while Ava Stueve had nine digs.
"We need to work on our communication on offense," McGhee said. "I feel like our serve receive and defense are doing really well for us, but our offense is a little lax."
Since losing to Fort Loramie in the Cavalier Spikeoff to start the season, St. Henry has won 20 consecutive sets.
"The thing thats awesome about that is we're not where we need to be yet. We can still get better," Rosenbeck said. "I haven't see us play our best game yet, so we're going to keep working and clean up the little things we need to clean up."
The Redskins now travels to the Palace next Thursday for a crucial MAC showdown. Minster returns to action Saturday at Celina.
