Thursday night saw the St. Mary’s Cardinals headed to Canistota. Coming into this one, the Lady Cards held a 5-2 record. Canistota entered the contest holding a 3-5 record. Thursday saw the Cardinals win in three sets as Paige Geraets, Emy Herber, and St. Mary’s walls off the Hawks in Canistota.
1st Set
Canistota would start out the game with the first two points. After going back-and-forth, the Cardinals would tie the set at 5-5. A Harper Werdel kill tied it again at 6-6. Maddyn Lebrun would get a kill for the 7-7 tie as neither team could get a strong footing. St. Mary’s would tie again at 8-8 but take the lead 10-8 after two Canistota errors. Canistota would go on quick 4-0 run before Herber blocked the Canistota attack. A Canistota error would yet again tie the set, this time at 13-13. After more back-and-forth, the Cardinals finally snagged control, getting up 21-18. The Hawks would get two points back, but Stephenie Geraets would send down a kill to close the set 25-20.
2nd Set
The second set would start with Canistota jumping out to a 3-1 lead. S. Geraets would get a kill, and then St. Mary’s would tie it at 3-1. P. Geraets would get a kill to tie it again at 5-5. A kill from Werdel would get St. Mary’s some momentum. A P. Geraets block and a S. Geraets ace would put the Lady Cards up 8-5. Another block from S. Geraets would cap off the 5-0 run from St. Mary’s before Canistota would get back to two points down at 9-7. A Werdel kill, a Lebrun kill, and an ace from P. Geraets would put the Cards up 12-8. After a block and then a kill from Herber, the Cardinals found themselves up 20-12. Herber would close the set out with an ace for a 25-13 finish.
3rd Set
A service error for Canistota would start the set. An ace from Natalie Gilbert and also a block from Herber would bring it to 4-0. The Hawks got two points back before a S. Geraets kill made it 5-2. The Cardinal lead would get to 9-3 before Canistota burned a timeout. A kill from Werdel would pick things up right where they left off. Canistota would get to within four, down 6-10, but that was as close as they would get. St. Mary’s ended up getting out to double the Hawks score at 16-8. An error by the Hawks made it 20-12. P. Geraets notched a block, then a kill, S. Geraets would score on a block, P. Geraets and Gilbert combined for a block before the set would end on a Hawk error at 25-17.
Stats
On the attack for the Cardinals, Werdel led with eight kills. Maddyn Lebrun and Herber tagged six kills with S. Geraets adding five. P. Geraets notched four with Gilbert adding a kill. Gilbert led the way in assists with 18. Madelyn Klein had seven of her own with S. Geraets having four. Herber added an assist. At the service line, Gilbert had three aces, and not far behind was P. Geraets with two. S. Geraets, Werdel, and Herber each tallied an ace.
Defensively is where you see where St Mary’s walls off Canistota. Herber finished with seven blocks. P. Geraets had five with Gilbert, Lebrun and S. Geraets finishing with three, two, and two respectively. Lebrun had 19 digs with Layla Hanson adding 15. Klein and Gilbert each had 10. S. Geraets had eight digs with Werdel having seven. Herber finished with five digs while P. Geraets had one.
Although it was a semi-slow start for the Cardinals, they cruised to the sweep. The Cardinals look to their next game at Sioux Falls Lutheran. That game will be played on Tuesday, September 16th at approximately 7:30. Information for a live stream will be found, but until then, check for updates in this post or on our Facebook. Any live stream link found will be posted at https://www.facebook.com/wyatt.baumberger
