Lady Cards find a win on the court

-MIKE RENNING RANDOLPH - The Randolph Lady Cardinal volleyball team earned its first win of the 2025 campaign with a “white-knuckle” 18-25, 26-24, 25-23 and 25-20 win over the Lady Indians.

Later in the week, the Lady Cards took Tri-County Northeast to the limit before falling, 25-22, 14-25 and 26-28, and dropped a match to Osmond 15-25 and 2125, both matches in a triangular hosted by the Lady Tigers on Sept. 11.

“We fought hard against Winnebago and it was a very exciting match,” said Randolph coach Lyndsee English. “We played very well as a team and I was incredibly proud of how we played.”

The Lady Cardinals dropped the opening set to the Lady Indians by the 25-18 score but came storming back in set two.

Ella Graf opened set two with back-to-back ace serves to grab some momentum.

With the Lady Cards up 3-1, Delayne Thelen rifled an ace, then Mabel Ngebeh slammed an overpass by the Lady Indians back to the other side of the net for a 5-1 lead.

A couple of more Thelen ace serves and a Winnebago hitting error pushed the advantage up to 8-1.

Eventually, Winnebago would come back and tie the score at 2020, but a Jenna Guenther winner put the Lady Redbirds back on top, 21-20.

Another Guenther kill took the next point, but four straight Winnebago points put Randolph in jeopardy of going down 2-0 in the match.

A service error by the Lady Indians followed by an Abby Backer winner for the Lady Cards evened the set at 24-24 then a Guenther kill on an overpass and hitting error by Winnebago gave the Lady Cards the two-point advantage necessary and the match was tied 1-1.

The third set went back and forth for its entirety and was tied 21-21 when Ngebeh hammered a winner then the teams traded errors.

After a Lady Indian kill made it 23-23, Backer nailed a winner and Alaina Schulz hit a winner and Randolph took the set by the 25-23 final to go up 2-1 in the match.

Despite starting the night without regular libero Lilly Kuchta due to illness and losing setter Brooke Meier during the match to injury, the Lady Cards came together in set four and took the match with a 25-20 win.

“Ella Graf stepped up in the setter’s position and wound up with 22 set assists, and three ace serves,” English said. “Mabel (Ngebeh) had an amazing night with 15 kills, three ace serves and seven digs. She was very reliable at the net and it was her best match of the season.”

In the triangular with the Lady Wolfpack and the Lady Tigers, Randolph opened with TCNE.

The Lady Cards won the first set by the 25-22 final score but fell 25-14 in the second race to 25 then just missed win two on the season with a 28-26 loss in set three.

“We started out strong and took a big lead thanks to Ella Graf’s seven ace serves,” said English. “We were able to finish strong in that set after we let them catch up some and take the set.”

The second set was, well, not so good.

“Set two didn’t go so well but we were able to make a comeback in set three,” said the coach. “We went back and forth until Tri-County got the 2-point win.”

Lexi Backhaus had a great match, accumulating 16 digs, Graf tipped up 17 set-assists to start the offense and Ngebeh and Backer had seven and six winners respectively.

Then came the match with Osmond.

“I was hoping we would go into the Osmond match with momentum from the third set of the Tri-County match, but that was not the case,” the coach said. “We didn’t pass well in the match and I’m not sure if Osmond’s serves were that tough but we went from passing well in the first match to struggling badly in this match.”

Alaina Schulz led the Lady Cardinal attack with five kills, Guenther added five.

Meier recorded seven assists. “We didn’t pass well which meant we couldn’t get any offense going,” the coach said. “I’m hoping we can bounce back and get some wins this week.”

The Lady Cardinals were set to host a triangular with Madison and Bloomfield on Sept. 15 before hosting Wausa Sept. 18 for a Parent’s Night contest.

Randolph 18 26 25 25 Winnebago 25 24 23 20

k=Kills, a=Ace Serves, b=Blocks, d=Digs, s=Set Assists, r=Serves Received.

RANDOLPH: Peyton Thelen 3k, 1b; Ella Graf 1k, 3a, 5d, 22s; Abbey Backer 7k, 1b, 3d, 1s, 4r; Sydney Robinson 5k, 1d, 1r; Alaina Schulz 1k, 2d, 1r, Addyson Wattier 3a, 7d, 9r; Mabel Ngebeh 15k, 3a, 7d, 1s, 17r; Brooke Meier 2a, 3d,4s;JennaGuenther3k,1a,4d,1s;Delayne Thelen 3a, 7d, 12r; Alexis Backhaus 2k, 1a, 16d, 3s, 29r. Tri-County NE 22 25 28 Randolph 25, 14 26 RANDOLPH: P. Thelen 3k, 1s; Graf 2k, 7a, 4d, 17s; Backer 6k, 1d; Schulz 4k, 2d; Wattier 3a, 4d, 7r; Ngebeh 7k, 1a, 6d, 1s, 13r; Guenther 3k, 2d; D. Thelen 2a, 1d; Lilly Kuchta 2a, 8d, 3s, 6r; Backhaus 13d, 3s, 25r. Osmond 25 25 Randolph 15 21 RANDOLPH:Graf4d,3s;Backer2k,1b;Schulz 5k, 2d; Wattier 5d, 5r; Ngebeh 2k, 4d; Meier 1a, 3d, 7s; Guenther 4k; D. Thelen 3d, 1s, 1r; Kuchta 4d, 4r; Backhaus 1a, 6d, 2s, 10r.