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RANDOLPH - The Randolph Lady Cardinal volleyball team had a very busy and somewhat successful first week of competition for the new season.
The early successes did not translate into a win, but the Lady Cards fought hard enough to give coach Lyndsee English hope and happiness in the efforts put forward on the court.
“The girls have shown bits and pieces of what they can do but now we need to put it all together,” said English. “They need to get that feeling of what it’s like to win and they will crave that feeling every time they step on the court.”
The Lady Cards traveled to Hartington for a quadrangular on Aug. 30 at Hartington-Newcastle along with Winside, Howells-Dodge and the hosts.
Winside defeated Randolph with back-to-back scores of 25-16 in the Lady Cards final match of the day.
“We played a lot better against Winside than we did the match before against Howells-Dodge,” English said. “ We just couldn’t finish either set.”
Lexi Backhaus tipped up a dozen set assists in the match with Mabel Ngebeh slamming eight of them to the court for eight kills.
Ngebeh and Lilly Kuchta each contributed six digs with Kuchta adding seven good passes in serve receive.
Howells-Dodge, a perennial Class D volleyball power, flexed its collective pedigree with a 25-5,25-12 sweep over Randolph in the second match of the day.
“Honestly, that was the worst I have seen us play in a long time,” the coach said. “As a team, we had no fight, no want, no drive.”
Regular setter Brooke Meier was unavailable for the entire quadrangular due to an injury which didn’t help matters, but English’s displeasure spurred the girls on to the next match with Winside noted above.
In the first match of the quad, Randolph was defeated by Hartington- Newcastle, 25-21 and 25-9.
This was the first match without Meier and Lexi Backhaus stepped in to take over the role of setter.
“She stepped into that role and played veiy well on the day,” English said. Abbey Backer came in as the starting right side hitter and also played veiy well on the day.”
Backhaus and Jenna Guenther each hit three winners in the match while Backhaus also added five assists.
Ngebeh was solid on defense with eight digs in the back row.
On Aug. 28, the Lady Redbirds hosted a triangular with Homer and Cedar Catholic.
The Lady Knights defeated Randolph 25-16 and 25-18 in the first match of the evening while Cedar Catholic won 25-21 in the first set before taking over the match, 25-12 in set two of the best-of-three-sets match.
“We had a slow start against Homer and made a decent comeback, but it was too big to overcome,” said English. “We came out better in the second match with Cedar and stayed within one or two points in the first set and were tied 19-19. A few mistakes by us cost us the set in the end.”
Randolph was set to take on Stuart, Sept. 2 and will be off until Sept. 8 when the Lady Cards travel back to Hartington for a match with the Lady Wildcats.
Winnebago comes to Randolph on Sept. 9. k=Kills, a=Ace Serves, b=Blocks, d=Digs, s=Set Assists, r=Serves Received.
Winside defeated Randolph 2516, 25-16.
RANDOLPH: Lilly Kuchta 2a, 6d, 7r; Abbey Backer 2k, la, 3d, 8r; Alaina Schulz lk, id; Sydney Robinson lk, lb; Lexi Backhaus 4d, 12s; Addyson Wattier 2d, 2r; Mabel Ngebeh 8k, 6d, 6r; Delayne Thelen 2d, 3r.
Howells-Dodge defeated Randolph 25-5, 25-12.
RANDOLPH: Kuchta 6d, la, lor; Backer id, gr; Schulz lk; Robinson id, is; Backhaus lk, 2d, 4s, lr; Wattier lr; Ngebeh 2k, is, lr; Jenna Guenther lk, id, 2r; Thelen 6d, 7r.
Hartington-Newcastle defeated Randolph 25-21, 25-9.
RANDOLPH: Kuchta la, id, 2s, 3r; Backer 2k, 2d, 2r; Schulz lk, 2r; Robinson id; Backhaus 3k, 2d, 5s; Wattier 3r; Ngebeh lk, lb, 8d; Guenther 3k, id; Thelen 6d, 2s, I2r.
Cedar Catholic defeated Randolph 25-21, 25-12.
RANDOLPH: Kuchta la, 6d, i6r; Backer id; Schulz lk; Backhaus 2k, 3d, I3r; Wattier 2d; is, 3r; Ngebeh 4k, la, 2d, is, 5r; Brooke Meier lk, la, 3d, 10s; Guenther 4k, id; Thelen 2d, 3r.
Homer defeated Randolph 2516, 25-18.
RANDOLPH: Kuchta la, lid, is, gr; Schulz id; Robinson 2k; Backhaus lk, 7d, 8r; Wattier 2d, 6r; Ngebeh 2k, la, lb; 2d, I3r; Meier lk, la, 3d, 6s; Guenther lk; Thelen 4d, 2r.
