The St. Catherine University volleyball team may have suffered an opening seaeson loss, but the enthusiastic squad wasn't discouraged after solid effort Friday. Fortunately, the Wildcats used their momentum from Friday on day two of the
University of Minnesota-Morris Tournament quickly defeating Bethany Lutheran College 3-0 (25-19, 25-11, 25-11) before battling to a 3-2 (25-15, 25-27, 21-25, 25-20, 15-13) victory over Simpson College Saturday in Morris, Minnesota.
"We had a solid second day," said Head Coach
Corey Phelps. "We played very well against Bethany Lutheran then came out hot against Simpson winning the first set easily. We lost momentum in the second and third sets, but picked up our intensity to win the fourth. After being down most of the fifth set, we came back in the waning moments with aggressive, smart offense and enthusiatic defense to take the five-set win. This was a great first weekend for us. We have a lot to improve on, but we competed well with everyone."
Offensively, the Wildcats turned in nearly identical performances hitting .268 against Bethany Lutheran and .265 against Simpson. They also served up 14 aces – drilling in seven each match.
Leading the solid defense for the Wildcats on the day was junior
Shanee Herd (Alexandria, Minn./Jefferson) who chipped in 39 digs combined in both matches Saturday. She came up with 29 digs in the five-set victory over Simpson and had a match-high 10 digs in the Bethany Lutheran matchup. Her three-match total of 60 digs on the weekend helped Herd earn the Wildcats' lone spot on the all-tournament team.
In the Wildcats' opening match of the day, first-year
Sabrina Astar (Hastings, Minn./Hastings) and
Megan Lindenfelser (Nowthen, Minn./Anoka) led the Wildcats offensively with nine and seven kills, respectively. Astar hit an impressive .571 and added five blocks to lead a the match in blocking and add to the Wildcats' 31 total blocks between both victories.
Lindenfelser was even better in the win over Simpson with a double-double performance collecting 16 kills and 16 digs. She added that to her nine digs from the opening match and completed her stat line for the day with three block assists and two service aces. Astar also came up big for the Wildcats in the second match with 11 kills, four block assists, two digs and one assist.
Alyssa Besch (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) had a solid day all around as well with 15 kills in the second-match win. She also had five kills in the opener and hit .571. Besch finished the day with six block assists, five digs, one assist and one ace. Fellow senior
Amber Zeiher (Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson) led the Wildcats' impressive blocking with a total of nine blocks and also picked up nine kills.
Zoe Barr (River Falls, Wis./River Falls),
Abby Palmer (Pequot Lakes, Minn./Pequot Lakes) and
Payton Baker (Forest Lake, Minn./Forest Lake) also made solid contributions. Barr recorded 10 kills and four blocks, while Palmer ended the day with 19 digs. First-year Baker recorded seven kills and hit .462 in the win over Simpson.
Hayley Levenhagen (Pewaukee, Wis./Catholic Memorial) and
Maria Davis (West St. Paul, Minn./St. Agnes) split setting duties in both matches to run the Wildcat offense. Levenhagen finished the day with 43 assists with a match-high 17 in the win over Bethany Lutheran, while Davis ended Saturday with 39 assists and a match-high 29 in the victory over Simpson.
Bethany Lutheran was led by Kristen Mielke who had six kills. Simpson's Jaqueline Luth led the match with 21 kills while Olivia Sulentic had a match-high 30 digs.
With the wins, the Wildcats open season 2-1. They return to action next Friday to face Maranatha Baptist University and Marian University at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Tournament in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
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