Cedar girls drop contest against Pierce; earn split in triangular

O’NEILL – The Cedar Catholic volleyball squad earned a split in a triangular hosted by O’Neill on Sept. 21 along with Wayne after dropping a Mid-State Conference match to Pierce at the Werner Activities Center in Hartington on Sept. 19.

The Lady Trojans lost their first match in the O’Neill triangular to the Lady Blue Devils, 25-21 and 25-23 in the best-of-three-sets match then defeated the hosts, before taking their final match of the evening over the Lady Eagles, 25-23, 23-25 and 25-10.

Against O’Neill, the teams split the first two sets with Cedar Catholic taking the opener 25-23 before the Lady Eagles forced a third set by the same score in set two.

The Lady Trojans came out on fire in that final set and ran away with the match with the 25-10 win.

Melayna McGregor earned 11 kills in the contest while Faith Christensen and Lauren Bernecker each added four winners.

Lexi Eickhoff had three slams and Autumn Kathol started the offensive attack with 12 set-assists, McGregor tipped up six.

Cedar Catholic had a great match from the service line with Kathol recording three ace serves; Annika Kuehn, Ella Bowers and Bernecker each had two and McGregor had one.

Eickhoff was a defensive force at the net with 10 total blocks, including six solo rejections. Lauren Bernecker had three, Christensen and McGregor two each and Christensen and Brynn Bernecker each had one.

Kuehn and Katy Jones each had six digs while Lauren Bernecker and Kathol each had five. Jones had 23 good passes on the night.

Cedar Catholic had its chances against Wayne, but saw the Lady Blue Devils take the match by the 25-21, 25-23 final scores.

Grace Wortmann paced the Lady Trojan offense with six winners in the match, Lauren Bernecker and McGregor each added four.

Kathol, Kuehn and McGregor each had an ace serve and Kathol had eight assists followed by McGregor with seven.

Jones had nine digs and finished with 22 good passes.

In the conference match up with Pierce, the Lady Trojans came out swinging, taking the opening set 2520, but the Lady Bluejays got things going from there, taking set two 25-17 and finishing the match with backto- back scores of 25-14 to end the evening.

Eickhoff had seven kills in the match, McGregor six and Wortmann finished with four.

McGregor also had four blocks and a couple of ace serves.

Lyndsey Hamilton had 10 assists, one fewer than McGregor who had 11.

McKinlee Lammers registered 18 successful passes, Kuehn had 15 and Jones had a dozen.

Kuehn had nine digs and Jones added six.

Cedar Catholic was set to take their 11-10 season record on the road on Sept. 26 when it traveled to Battle Creek for another regular season conference match before taking on Guardian Angels Central Catholic Sept. 28 back at home in Hartington.

The Lady Trojans will play in a triangular in Wynot on Oct. 5.

Cedar Catholic defeats O’Neill 25-23, 23-25, 25-10. CEDAR CATHOLIC (11-10): Autumn Kathol 3a, 5d, 12s; Annika Kuehn 2a, 6d, 5r; Lexi Eickhoff 3k, 10b; Faith Christensen 4k, 2b, 1d, 3r; Ella Bowers 2a, 1s, 1r; Lauren Bernecker 4k, 2a, 3b, 5d, 6r; Katelyn Arens 1k, 1b, 1d; Mckinlee Lammers 1d, 5r; Melayna McGregor 11k, 1a, 2b, 4d, 6s, 3r; Lexi Eickhoff 1k, 1b; Katy Jones 6d, 23r. Wayne defeats Cedar Catholic 25-21, 25-23. CEDAR CATHOLIC: Grace Wortmann 5k; 6d, 3r; Autumn Kathol 1a, 8d, 8s; Kuehn 1a, 4d, 6r; Eickhoff 3k, 6b; L. Bernecker 4k, 3b, 1d, 2r; Lammers 1d, 5r; McGregor 4k, 1a, 3b, 7d, 7s, 1r; Addison Walter 2k, 1b, 3d; B. Bernecker 2b, 2d; Jones 9d, 2s, 22r. Pierce defeats Cedar Catholic 20-25, 25-17, 25-14, 25-14. CEDAR CATHOLIC: Wortmann 4k, 1b, 1d, 6r; Kathol 1d; Kuehn 9d, 15r; Eickhoff 7k, 2b, 1d; L. Bernecker 3k, 2b, 3d, 3r; Lammers 3d, 18r; Lyndsey Hamilton 2k, 4d, 10s; McGregor 6k, 2a, 4b, 4d, 11s, 6r; Walter 2k, 5r; B. Bernecker 1k, 1b; Jones 6d, 12r.