Lady Trojans drop Mid-State opener

ALBION - The Cedar Catholic volleyball team dropped its opening match in the Mid-State Conference Tournament to Battle Creek in four sets 25-22,16-25,13-25 and 17-25 to drop to 15-13 overall.

The Lady Trojans will play on in the tournament as games were scheduled for Oct. 17 at Boone Central in Albion and the competition was set to continue Oct. 19.

Earlier last week, Cedar Catholic dropped a regular-season match with Laurel-Concord-Coleridge on Oct. 10 at the Msgr. Werner Activity Center in Hartington and won a Mid-State regular-season matchup in Albion with Boone Central on Oct. 12.

In the loss to Battle Creek in the tournament, the Lady Trojans opened the match strong, taking the first set by the 25-22 margin.

Unfortunately, they failed to reach 20 points in each of the three sets Battle Creek won to take the match.

Katy Jones had a great match, successfully passing the ball 43 times to set up the offense and she also registered 23 digs defensively and had a couple of service aces.

Annika Kuehn had 17 receptions and five digs. Autumn Kathol had seven digs. Melayna McGregor registered a double-double with 11 assists and 10 kills; Grace Wortmann hit nine winners. Kathol added 10 set-assists.

On Oct. 12, the Lady Trojans hit the road to take on the Lady Cardinals and brought back a 3-2 win.

Cedar Catholic won the first set 25-16, but fell apart in the second run to 25, losing 25-9.

The Lady Cardinals took set three 25-17 to put a claim on the match, but the Lady Trojans gathered momentum and took set four 30-28 to stay alive for the sprint to 15.

Cedar Catholic took the final set 1512 to win the match.

Once again, Jones had a monster match with 45 good receptions, 29 digs, two ace serves and a kill.

McGregor had another double-double, leading the team with 14 slams and tipping up 20 assists.

Kuehn recorded 13 digs, and Lauren Bernecker had 14 receptions and eight digs.

Lexi Eickhoff had 10 blocks at the net.

Kathol had 15 assists. The match with the Lady Bears also went five sets with Laurel-Concord-Coleridge taking set one 25-19, but the Lady Trojans responded in set two with a 25-12 win.

The Lady Bears took set three 25-18 and Cedar Catholic responded again to take set four 25-15.

The match ended with Laurel-Concord-Coleridge taking set five 15-7.

Wortmann paced the offense with nine winners in the match; Eickhoff and Katelyn Arens each had five.

Lauren Bernecker served six aces; McGregor had 12 assists and Lyndsey Hamilton had 10.

Jones had 25 digs and 38 good passes and Eickhoff had six blocks.

The Lady Trojans were set to take on Wayne Oct. 17 in the Mid-State Conference Tournament.

Battle Crk def Cedar 22-25,25-16,25-13,25-17. CEDAR (15-13): Grace Wortmann 9k, 1b, 2d, 7r; Autumn Kathol 7d, 10s; Annika Kuehn 1a, 5d, 17r; Lexi Eickhoff 4k, 4b; Lauren Bernecker 6k, 1a, 4b, 2d, 5r; Mckinlee Lammers 2d; Melayna McGregor 10k, 1a, 1b, 5d, 11s; Addison Walter 3k, 3b, 2d, 2r; Brynn Bernecker 2k, 2b; Katy Jones 1k, 2a, 23d, 5s, 43r. Cedar def Boone 25-16,9-25,17-25,30-28,15-12. CEDAR: Bailey Hochstein 2d, 3r; Wortmann 4k, 2b, 2d, 2r; Kathol 7d, 15s; Kuehn 13d, 8r; Eickhoff 7k, 10b, 1d; Faith Christensen 1b, 1 d, 2r; Ella Bowers 1a; L. Bernecker 4k, 2b, 8d, 14r; Katelyn Arens 6k, 1r; McGregor 14k, 1a, 1b, 7d, 20s, 7r; Walter 1k, 1a, 1b, 1d, 1r; B. Bernecker 5k, 9b, 3d; Jones 1k, 2a, 29d, 45r. LCC def Cedar 25-19,12-25,25-18,15-25,15-7. CEDAR CATHOLIC: Hochstein 4r; Wortmann 9k, 1a, 1b, 3r; Kathol 5s; Kuehn 2a, 9d, 8r; Eickhoff 5k, 6b, 2d; Christensen 4r; Bowers 1k; L. Bernecker 4k, 6a, 3b, 8d, 8r; Arens 5k, 2b; Lyndsey Hamilton 3k, 3a, 1d, 11s; Mc-Gregor 4k, 3b, 10d, 12s, 4r; Walter 3k, 2b, 4d, 1r; Jones 1k, 1a, 25d, 1s, 38r.