Cardinals keep soaring
COLDWATER — New Bremen continued its winning ways on Tuesday, defeating Coldwater on the road in straight sets, 25-18, 25-17, 25-20, in Midwest Athletic Conference play.
The Cardinals (13-0) have yet to lose a set in conference play this season.
New Bremen struggled early in all three sets but were able to find their footing and cruise to the win.
“Any win’s good. Volleyball is a game of mistakes so you have to expect that you’re going to make mistakes,” said New Bremen coach Diana Kramer. “It’s how you respond to them.”
The Cardinals fell behind in the first set 5-2. A long rally won by New Bremen cut the Cavaliers (6-6) lead to one at 11-10 and later Diana Heitkamp’s ace gave them their first lead to go up 14-13.
Heitkamp recorded three aces during her service and New Bremen went up by five at 18-13.
Up 23-18, Olivia Heitkamp aced two serves in a row to earn the first set victory for the Cardinals.
The second set saw both teams struggle with their serves as each took turns hitting it long or serving into the net.
“I don’t know if we broke a record
tonight for the number of missed serves from both teams combined — we may have — but I’m proud of my team for finding a way to stay focused and not let it bother you so much that it affects the outcome of the game,” said Kramer. “We continued to find a way to grind through it. It’s something we need to work on, we know we need to get better at it.”
The New Bremen offense adjusted and went on a tear in the middle of the set behind Olivia Heitkamp’s serves.
Heitkamp recorded back-to-back aces that gave the Cardinals their biggest lead of the set at 19-13.
Coldwater finally broke her serve at 23-14, scored the next three points but New Bremen pulled away and won the set by a margin of eight.
The third set was closest of the night and New Bremen fell behind 3-6 early. They took their first lead at 14-13.
Josie Reinhart served well in the set and the Cardinals saw their biggest lead at 22-16 with her serving. Despite Coldwater making a push, New Bremen held on for the set win and the match.
“They’re a good team. They’re really, really young and they’re wellcoached,” Kramer said of Coldwater. “They found a way to exploit some of our weaknesses and we just got to come back in the gym tomorrow ready to play and ready to find a way to get better.”
New Bremen has only dropped three sets all year and Kramer noted her team’s improvement since the first practice of the season.
“In August to the beginning of September, we have improved drastically,” she said. “I think they also know we’re finally getting to the tip of the iceberg. We still have so much room for improvement but they’re starting to see how good they really can be because on some points they’re really, really good. It’s just finding a way to become more consistent and I think that’s what we need to work on the most.”
Diana Heitkamp and Reinhart tied with a match-high six aces. Reinhart recorded a match-high nine kills while Heitkamp led the match with 10 digs. Elli Roetgerman and Ellie Tangeman each had five kills and Claire Pape had a match-high 19 assists.
New Bremen will next host Parkway on Thursday.