On Saturday St. Mary’s made the trip up to Estelline to compete in the Redhawk Tournament. The Lady Cards went 2-1 after beating Great Plains Lutheran, falling to Hitchcock-Tulare, then beating Waverly-South Shore. It was especially a big day for the Geraets duo as the Cardinals would take 3rd in Estelline.
Cardinals Vs GPL
Natalie Gilbert started at the service line for St. Mary’s, although the two teams split the first two points. Great Plains Lutheran would surrender the 1-1 tie, and Maddyn Lebrun would step to the service line. Lebrun served the Cardinals to a quick 6-2 lead. The Panthers would get a point back, but St. Mary’s would maintain a lead for half of the set. Great Plains Lutheran was able to tie at 12 before pulling ahead to make it 12-13. After tying the game, the points were coming in back and forth. The Cardinals held a two-point lead at 19-17. Then Junior Paige Geraets shut the door on the set. Starting with a kill to make it 20-17, she would step to the service line and score an ace on her first serve. The Cardinals brought it to 24-17 when P. Geraets served up another ace to finish the set 25-17.
The Panthers would come out screaming in the second set, building up a 6-2 lead right away. After the deficit got to 4-9 for the Cardinals, Stephenie Geraets would score a kill and then step to the service line. The momentum completely shifted. A 5-2 run brought it to 10-11, St. Mary’s still trailing. The points went back-and-forth and GPL was up 18-16 when Harper Werdel scored two kills. S. Geraets would score an ace, and Gilbert would get a kill to make the score 19-18. It was tied at 20, but then the Panthers would score the next three and look like they had the set. St. Mary’s would go on a 4-0 run to make it 24-23 though, and they’d win the set 27-25 to seal the game.
Cardinals Vs Hitchcock-Tulare
The second match was much closer. Hitchcock-Tulare came out looking like they would win it no problem after going back-and-forth for the first few points. The Patriots grew their lead out to 10-6 before the Cardinals grabbed some momentum. They came crawling back to make it 9-12. S. Geraets and P. Geraets hit the Patriots with two straight kills to make the score 12-13. S. Geraets would go to serve and get the set knotted at 14. It was tied again at 16 before Hitchcock-Tulare stretched their lead to 17-22. Emy Herber got a block and S. Geraets grabbed two kills on the way to a 23-23 tie. St. Mary’s held set point at 24-23, but fell to the Patriots 25-27.
In the second set, the Lady Cards looked to get one back. Herber had a kill to kickstart St Mary’s, scoring the first three points of the set. The Patriots tied it at 4-4 before Herber knocked down an ace. Werdel and S. Geraets notched a kill a piece to make it 7-4. Hitchcock-Tulare would not go away though, tying the game again at 9-9. From there they would build a 13-10 lead. Another Geraets kill tied it at 14, and another Herber kill tied it again at 15. The Patriots would get out to a 21-16 lead after that though. It looked over until S. Geraets notched two straight aces, and Werdel slammed down a kill to make it 22-20. P. Geraets would get an ace to make it 22-23, but that was the last point St. Mary’s would score, falling to Hitchcock-Tulare 25-22.
Cardinals Vs Waverly-South Shore
A Gilbert ace and a S. Geraets kill got St. Mary’s out 3-0. The Coyotes of Waverly-South Shore got one point back, but after a S. Geraets kill, Werdel kill, and Herber kill, the Coyotes found themselves down 9-1. From there the lead would stretch to 11-3, then to 15-7. Two straight kills came off the hands of Herber, then of Gilbert to make it 17-7. Then WSS went on a bit of a run to make it 20-12. S. Geraets would get an ace to kickstart the Cardinals closing the first set on a 5-1 run to take it 25-13.
The second set was tied 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, up to 11-11. S. Geraets got another kill making it tied again at 13. Werdel then had two kills to make it 17-13. S. Geraets would score two more kills for a 20-15 lead. Gilbert, Lebrun, and Herber all had kills to make it 23-20. From there, Gilbert would send home an ace and Waverly-South Shore failed to get the ball over the net in three hits on what would be the 25th point for the Cardinals. St. Mary’s took the set 25-20 letting the Cardinals take 3rd in Estelline.
Stats
Werdel tallied seven, three, and five kills, while S. Geraets had four, five, and five. Herber added three, three, and three, while P. Geraets had two, one, and one, and Lebrun had five, one, and two. Gilbert had one and four kills in the last two matches. With assists, Madelyn Klein tallied eight, four, and seven. Gilbert had seven, 10, and 12. S. Geraets added two in the GPL game. As far as digs go, Werdel had 19, nine, and 10. Lebrun had nine, 13, and 10. Layla Hanson had nine, four, and 14. Herber had six, seven, and three. P. Geraets had three and two, while S. Geraets had two, four, and four. P. Geraets had three aces across all games while Werdel had one, Gilbert had two, Herber had one, and S. Geraets had four.
The Cardinals took 3rd in Estelline after a solid showing through three matches. After what was a big day for the Geraets duo as the Cardinals took 3rd, we now wonder what the Lady Cards can do on Monday, September 9th against the Garretson Blue Dragons. That game will be on Big Sioux Media at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7KCHb-UjLI.
