Tuesday was a great game for many of the Cardinal players. St Mary turned a slow start in set 1 into a 3 set sweep over the Oldham-Ramona-Rutland Raiders. Headlined by Junior Emy Herber and Sophomore Harper Werdel, the Cardinals dominated. It only took three sets for this game to find its’ conclusion as Herber, Werdel Hammer Raiders in Cardinals Sweep of ORR.
1st Set
As before mentioned, the first set was a slow one for the Cardinals. Sophomore Natalie Gilbert started at the service line for the Cardinals. A Stephenie Geraets kill got St. Mary’s on the board first. The Raiders were able to get up by 3 on the Cardinals, and held that 3 point lead for much of the set. Sitting at 14-11, a Paige Geraets kill, followed by two aces off the hand of Harper Werdel, tied it up at 14. The teams then traded points to be tied 20-20. St Mary’s was able to push it to 22-20 before ORR was able to score again to bring it to 22-21. A Harper Werdel kill, a net violation on ORR, and a kill error gave the Cardinals the last 3 points of the set to take it 25-21.
2nd Set
The Second set was much smoother for the Cardinals. Started by a Maddyn Lebrun kill, St. Mary’s got out to a quick 7-2 lead. ORR was able to go back and forth some to bring the score to 12-6. St Mary’s scored the next 6 points to bring their lead to 18-6. 21-8 was the score by the time the Raiders ended the Cardinal run. ORR would score once more making the score 22-10 in favor of St. Mary’s. Stephenie Geraets would step to the service line for the final points of the set making it 25-10.
3rd Set
The Raiders would start out hot in the 3rd. After the Cardinals grabbed a 2-0 lead, the Raiders went on a 7-0 run. St. Mary’s would ultimately jump back to tie the game at 8. The game was tied again at 11 before the Cardinals went on a 10-0 run bringing the score to 21-11. ORR would end that scoreless run, but St. Mary’s would close the set 25-12 to end the Cardinals sweep of ORR.
Stats
For the Cardinals, Harper Werdel finished with 13 kills. Paige Geraets and Emy Herber finished with 9 kills each in addition to Stephenie Geraets’ 5 kills. Also adding kills were Maddyn Lebrun with 4 and Natalie Gilbert with 1. Then moving to assists, Gilbert tallied 27 with Madelyn Klein adding 14. Paige Geraets, Maddyn Lebrun, as well as Emy Herber accounted for 6 blocks. Geraets and Lebrun with 1 each with Herber holding the other 4. Layla Hanson led the team in digs with 11, although Harper Werdel finished not far behind with 10. Lucy Vargas and Stephenie Geraets each totaled 8 digs. Herber finished with 7, Lebrun with 6, Gilbert with 4, Klein with 3, and Paige Geraets had 2.
From the service line, Stephenie Geraets, Natalie Gilbert, Harper Werdel, and Emy Herber each had 3 aces. Maddyn Lebrun and Lucy Vargas each added 1 ace for a team total of 14. The sets, of course, ended with scores of 25-21, 25-10, and 25-12 as St Mary’s dominated in Rutland.
The next games for the Cardinals will be in Estelline where they will be playing in the Redhawk Volleyball Tournament. More schedule information is on bound at https://gobound.com/sd/sdhsaa/volleyball/2025-26/dellrapidsstmary/v/schedule
