MANKATO —
A scrappy New Ulm Cathedral volleyball team defended its Crusader Classic title Saturday at Fitzgerald gym by downing Le Center 25-20, 25-15, 15-13 in the championship match.
Val Lux ripped six kills and three players — Jackie Furth, Marisa Waibel and Lisa Helget — chipped in four kills apiece as the Greyhounds improved to 5-0 on the season heading into Tuesday’s return trip to play Mankato Loyola.
“We served very well all day and that was a key for us,” Cathedral coach Stef Dietz said. “We moved the ball with our serve to get our opponents out of their offense. We were also very scrappy and kept playing until the ball hit the floor.
“We just kept plugging away after losing that second game. We had confidence and we knew what we had to do. They have a lot of hitters so we knew we had to get some huge blocks up, especially on No. 3 (Brooke Dunklebeck), and we got one at the end to win it.”
After a Dunklebeck kill tied things at 13 in Game 3, a collision between three Wildcats resulted in a point and Carissa Zieske followed with an ace block to give Cathedral the victory. Dunklebeck, a 5-foot-6 junior outside hitter, smacked seven kills in the final match and ended up with 23 on the day. Katrina Christian added four kills in the final for the ’Cats and finished the tournament with 24.
“It was a good day for us,” Le Center coach Brittany Keltgen said. “We’ve got some girls switching positions this year, but they’re doing really well. Our talking wasn’t the way it should be and our hitters need to be more aware of the court. ... We need to talk more.”
Cathedral, which defeated Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin 25-12, 25-22 in the semifinals, captured Game 1 despite allowing an 8-1 run that tied things at 16 on a cross-court kill from Dunkelbeck. Helget then smacked a pair of kills before her ace tip and back-to-back kills from Anne Giesen ignited the ’Hounds to a 25-20 triumph. Lux tallied five kills in the contest.
Le Center (3-2) used four-point service runs from Coley Sully and Christian, along with the hitting of Dunkelbeck and Christian, to control Game 2 from start to finish. Christian and Selly delivered two ace hits each as the Wildcats opened up a 14-7 lead. Annie Miller’s two kills and two blocks kept things rolling before Dunkelbeck’s two kills helped close out a 25-15 win.
“We knew they were going to come out with some hard hits so we had to be ready for that,” Lux said. “We had to stay on our toes, stay low and get the ball back up to our setter. We were kind of slow and sluggish in the second game so we knew the third game was our last chance.
“We’ve been working on our serve receive a lot this week. Once we focused in on that, we were able to get our sets up and our hits down. We had to do everything right to get that last game and we did.”
Lux recorded 24 kills, nine ace blocks and five ace serves on the day while Helget ended up with 16 kills and six ace blocks. Giesen dished out 52 assists and Furth added 18 ace kills.
Loyola was credited with its first victory under new coach Kali Gosch when the Crusaders split with MLBO, losing 25-18 and then winning 25-16 to win by total points.
Senior outside hitter Ashley Mettler led the Crusaders with 14 kills and 10 service aces while Jamie Menke collected 40 set assists. Senior middle hitter Laura Kottschade added 11 ace blocks.
The Crusaders lost to Le Center 25-18, 25-23 and Cathedral 25-21, 25-20 in pool play before falling to the Greyhounds 25-20, 25-20.
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Related Photos
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New Ulm Cathedral’s Lisa Helget slams one of her 16 kills during the Crusader Classic volleyball tournament Saturday at Fitzgerald gym. Helget also had six blocks as the Greyhounds successfully defended their title. Pat Christman
Greyhounds use confidence to repeat at Crusader Classic
New Ulm Cathedral defeats Le Center for the title
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