By ROBB HEMMELGARN
Standard Correspondent
MINSTER
— For the second night in succession, the Minster Lady
Wildcats took to the volleyball court and once again remained
unbeaten as the smoke cleared.
Their latest victim, the St. Marys Roughriders, gave the Orange
and Black a hard-fought battle, but eventually succumbed in
two games, 15-8, 15-11.
“I’ll tell you what, I’m going to give St.
Marys a lot of credit for the way they played tonight,”
remarked Minster coach Rick Carter. “They’re a scrappy
team. They aren’t real big in size, but they played excellent
defense and got some good hits and were able to catch us off
balance at times.”
In the opening contest, the home team jumped out to the quick
5-0 lead, however, a short time later the Roughriders closed
the gap to two points at 5-3. The teams traded service points
and Krissy Haines’ jump serve ace pulled her team to within
a point at 6-5.
The Wildcats were able to respond with another pair of service
points from sophomore Laura Morsey to take command 8-5, but
the Roughriders‚ just wouldn’t say die. Jill Anderson
provided the serving as her team knotted the contest at eight
points by taking advantage of several Minster defensive lapses.
Robyn Hoying bumped over a Roughrider serve to give possession
back to the home team, and the senior middle hitter served up
the game’s next seven points, giving her team the 15-8
victory in game one.
“They had a couple of girls jump serve tonight and they
were successful at picking up a few points from those,”
said Carter. “We haven’t seen that at all this year
and it caught us out of position a few times, but we managed
to recover nicely and Robyn provided some excellent serving
at the end of the game. That’s really something we like
to see out of her because it means other girls are coming up
with big hits when she’s back there for so long.”
St. Marys drew first blood in the second game, but the Wildcats
immediately answered with three straight points to pull ahead,
3-1. Emily Matthews served two straight points for the visitors
and the contest was knotted at three points apiece before Minster
answered with another couple of scores from the serving of Morsey.
The Wildcats were in command 5-3, and six sideouts later added
another point to take charge, 6-3. St. Marys answered with another
tandem of points to cut the Wildcat lead to one point, and from
there it was a seesaw battle. Haines tied the game at eight
points with a pair of jump serves which fell in front of Wildcat
freshman Danae Spieles and the Blue and Gold would jump ahead
by as many as two points at 10-8 before Minster would rally.
The
Wildcats tied the contest at 10-10 following a pair of serves
by Spieles. The Roughriders picked up another point to take
the 11-10 lead, but from there it was all Minster as the home
team responded with five straight points to close the match
with the hard-earned 15-11 win.
“I though overall we played very competitive tonight,”
explained St. Marys Coach Monica Vanderhorst. “We tied
it at eight points in the first game and it was knotted at 11
points in the second game. The key is to stay competitive with
the teams that we play as we continue to build more confidence.”
With the win, the Wildcats keep their record unblemished at
8-0 on the season, while St. Marys drops to 3-5 on the young
campaign. The Wildcats will host the Delphos St. John’s
Blue Jays tomorrow night in a league contest, while the Roughriders
will play host to the undefeated Ottawa Glandorf Titans in a
home tilt.
|