New Bremen volleyball sweeps week, Minster wins on senior night
The reigning D. IV state champion New Bremen Lady Cardinals volleyball team, 9-0 (2-0), remained undefeated with a four set (25-16, 27-25, 22-25, 2522) win over the reigning D. II state champion Bishop Fenwick (5-4).
“There was a lot of things that were the same,” said Lady Cards head coach Diana Kramer in preparing for the Lady Falcons. “like they run the same defense. It’s different players, but the same philosophy and mentality. Their coach says they’re going to get back to states this year so this is a quality win for us and I’m very proud of our team.”
The first set, like all of them, back and forth early, with both teams trading kills. The Lady Falcons took an 11-9 lead on a tip but the Lady Cards responded with a 6-0 run that was capped off by a kill from senior Elli Roetgerman to force a Lady Falcon time, leading 1511.
That run gave the Lady Cards the momentum to finish out the first set strong, with a Roetgerman ace giving them the set point.
“Chloe Bornhorst is the most improved server on our team, maybe in the state of Ohio,” said Kramer. “She’s just doing a really good job and helping build our leads.”
In the second set, it was once again back and forth with the Lady Cards leading for the majority of the set but not being able to separate themselves by more than five or so points.
The Lady Cards held the lead for the majority of the set until a late push in the early 20s saw the Lady Falcons fight back and force a Lady Cards timeout when they took a 23-22 lead, their first lead since 3-2
It went to extra points, win by two, with block from junior Kaylee Freund and Roetgerman giving them a 26-25 lead before a Lady Falcon error gave them the set and 2-0 lead.
The Lady Falcons would force a set four with a three-point 25-22 win in the third set.
The Lady Cards got out to a strong start similar to the second set, but the Lady Falcons were the ones holding a lead late as a late Lady Cards push came up just short with a serving error giving the Lady Falcons the set point.
“In that third set we had that big lead and didn’t end with that big lead,” said Kramer. “They kept chipping away. We have to find ways to build on our lead or stay in the moment and don’t dwell on the moment or feel that pressure.”
In the fourth set, the Lady Cards jumped out to a 9-1 lead, with a kill from senior Claire Pape forcing a Lady Falcons timeout.
The Lady Falcons would fight back in the middle of the set, with a kill cutting the Lady Cards lead to 17-12 and another kill later in the set bringing them to within three, 2017. A kill from Roetgerman was the game point, as the Lady Cards won 25-22.
“It was our inability to play the middle of both of those sets that hurt us,” said Kramer of sets three and four. “The difference between sets three and four was we could finish in four, in set three, we just didn’t finish.”
Junior Chloe Bornhorst had 6 aces, senior Claire Pape had 38 assists, senior Diana Heitkamp had 12 digs, freshman Olivia Heitkamp had four blocks and senior Josie Reinhart led the team with 14 kills with Roetgerman (10), O. Heitkamp (6), Elli Tangeman (7) and Freund (6) adding more kills as well.
“Both their middles were really good,” said Kramer. “We focused in on them and tried to slow them down. If you watched todays match you saw how it was back and forth, side out here, side out there. It was a lot like a college match because at the collegiate level, it’s a lot of serve, pass and hit. Other team serves, pass and hit. You saw a lot of that today. There was just two really good teams playing today.”
That capped off an undefeated week for the Lady Cards, who beat St. Marys (25-11. 25-8, 25-10) on Sept. 8 and St. Henry (25-22, 25-21, 2515) on Sept. 10.
“It tells me were really tough,” said Kramer when asked what the win over the Lady Falcons showed her about the team. “A lot teams get nervous when they get to the 20s and aren’t able to finish. One of my teams strengths is staying calm and finding a way to get the job done. We’re on the right track to getting to the place we want to get to. We still have a lot of work to do and need to stay hungry and humble throughout the process.”
Minster
The Minster Lady Wildcat volleyball team, 3-2 (1-1) picked up their first Midwest Athletic Conference (MAC) win on Sept. 10 against Delphos St. John’s (DSJ) in four sets (18-25, 25-22, 25-19, 25-21) on senior night.
Three out of the four sets on Thursday night were back and forth until the final point was tallied, with both teams battling self-inflicted mistakes.
In the first set, neither team could pull away with ten ties (1-1, 2-2, 4-4, 7-7, 8-8, 10-10, 11-11, 15-15, 16-16, 17-17) total. The Lady Wildcats scored five straight after a timeout, trailing 15-11, to force a DSJ timeout after taking the 16-11 lead.
But too many mistakes on the serve and receive, as well as hits getting through blockers, led to DSJ coming away with the 25-18 set one win.
“We had to dictate the game at our pace,” said Lady Wildcats head coach Cami Garman. “First set, we didn’t do that. We let DSJ dictate that whole set and it took us out of our element.”
“That first set we looked at errors,” said Garman. “We had eight attacking errors and three