Monday was a great collective win for the Cardinals as the Garretson Blue Dragons came to town. Coming off of a 3rd place performance in last weekend’s Estelline Tournament, St. Mary’s felt confident against the 1-5 Dragons. Monday saw the Dragons drop like flies at the hands of Lebrun and the Cardinals.
1st Set
Natalie Gilbert would be back to serve right away for the Cardinals. Garretson would totally capture the momentum to start, going on a 4-0 run right away. St. Mary’s would end up pulling even at 5-5 before Garretson would bring it to 9-5. After a short volley, Madelyn Klein set up Maddyn Lebrun on one of her many kills of the night. Harper Werdel would score on an ace to bring the deficit to 9-10. Another Garretson run made it 14-9 in favor of the Dragons. Garretson would get the score to 16-10 before Gilbert stepped to the line to give the Cardinals a 7-0 run. Back-and-forth went the points as it was tied at 18. Garretson got up again 23-22, but Werdel got a kill, Lebrun got a kill, and Werdel closed the set with an ace to take it 25-23.
2nd Set
Garretson would serve first in the second set. Although the Dragons scored first, Emy Herber would get a kill, and Lebrun would put down two kills straight. Gilbert got an ace, and Herber blocked Garretson’s attack at the net to make the score 6-1. Garretson would get within 3 at 10-7, but The Lady Cards kept on pushing out their lead. A block from Stephenie Geraets, a kill from Gilbert and from Paige Geraets along with two straight Lebrun kills made the score 15-8. Another Lebrun kill, a Herber block, a Herber kill, and a S. Geraets kill made it 19-13. Herber pushed one over to make it 20-13. After some more back-and-forth, the score ended up at 24-18 when Werdel closed the set with another ace to make it 25-18. St. Mary’s would find themselves up two sets to none.
3rd Set
Gilbert would start at the service line in the third set. A Herber kill got the scoring started right away for the Cardinals. Lebrun would punch over an ace to make it 4-1. Garretson would get caught under the net and send some attacks wide to bring the St. Mary’s lead to 10-3. The Dragons would punch back making it 12-6. Lebrun would get another kill to bring the score to 14-7, and S. Geraets would knock down a kill to make it 16-8. Lebrun would go back to serve where she’d hit home an ace. Garretson would have another few errant attacks bringing the score to 20-8. After a 3-0 Garretson run, Werdel tapped the ball over the net to make it 21-11. S. Geraets got another kill then scored an ace to make it 23-12. St. Mary’s would end up taking the set 25-14 to sweep Garretson.
Stats
The Cardinal offense truly made the Dragons drop like flies. Offensively, Lebrun and Werdel tied at the top with 10 kills each. Herber had eight, and S. Geraets had five. Gilbert had two, while P. Geraets had one. Gilbert finished with 23 assists with Madelyn Klein tallying 10. Herber had two, and S. Geraets had one assist. Gilbert and Werdel finished on top with three aces each, while Lebrun had two. S. Geraets and Herber both had an ace.
Defensively Herber finished with four blocks. Lebrun, Gilbert, and S. Geraets each had one block. Lebrun had the high number for digs, finishing with 22. Layla Hanson finished with 15. Werdel and Gilbert tallied nine and eight respectively. P. Geraets and Herber had five digs each with S. Geraets having three and Madelyn Klein having one.
After the Dragons drop like flies to Lebrun and the Cardinals, St. Mary’s plays next in Canistota on Thursday, September 11th in Canistota. The livestream for the game should be under Canistota’s school, we will report those details as we figure them out.
