NORFOLK — The Cedar Catholic Lady Trojans volleyball team had a tough time against some very good competition to end the week 2-3, winning the final two matches of the busy slate.
The Lady Trojans went 2-1 in the Stanton Invitational on Sept. 16 with sweeps over Arlington and West Point-Beemer and a loss to Ponca 2-1. Cedar Catholic had swept the Lady Indians back on Sept. 9, but are without the services of libero Katy Jones, who is out with a knee injury.
Earlier in the week, the Lady Trojans were swept in a triangular held at Norfolk Catholic by the Lady Knights and Elgin Public-Pope John, In the win over West Point-Beemer, Cedar Catholic won the first set 25-22 and then made it a sweep with a second-set win 25-19.
Lauren Bernecker paced the Lady Trojan attack with nine kills in the match. Melayna McGregor had six and Grace Wortmann added five.
Addison Walter had a couple of ace serves while McGregor and Lyndsey Hamilton each had one ace.
Hamilton had a dozen set-assists; McGregor added 10. McKinlee Lammers successfully passed 11 balls in the match, Annika Kuehn moved on seven, Lauren Bernecker had six and Brynn Bernecker had five.
Defensively, Lexi Eickhoff and Brynn Bernecker each had a block and Kuehn had seven digs.
In the win over Arlington, Cedar Catholic had little trouble, winning the first set 25-6 and taking the second set 25-14.
No stats were made available for this match. In the loss to the Lady Indians, every set went down to the wire in the best-of-three-sets match.
In fact, two of the sets went to extra points before deciding the outcome.
The Lady Trojans finally got up a couple of points at 26-24, lost set two 25-23, then fell in set three 27-25 to lose the match.
Lauren Bernecker finished with eight winners, McGregor slammed six, Eickhoff added five, Walter registered four and Katelyn Arens had three.
Walter also had a couple of ace serves and Hamilton had 17 assists; McGregor added 13.
Kuehn had 19 good passes; Lammers had 14. Lauren Bernecker stuffed six balls at the net; Eickhoff and Arens had four blocks each.
Kuehn added 17 digs to her match; Hamilton and McGregor each had eight.
See CEDAR, Page 10 In the triangular at Norfolk Catholic, the Lady Knights defeated Cedar Catholic in the last match for the Lady Trojans 25-24 and 25-17 while Elgin Public-Pope John turned back Cedar Catholic in straight sets, 25-21 and 25-21.
Lauren Bernecker continued to lead the Lady Trojan attack against the Lady Knights with five kills, while Eickhoff added four, and McGregor and Wortmann each had three winners.
Hamilton had 12 assists, McGregor added five and Bailey Hochstein had 14 good passes, Kuehn made good on 11 chances to move the ball.
Hochstein added nine digs to her match, Kuehn had seven, and Lammers and McGregor each had four.
Against EPPJ, Lauren Bernecker and Eickhoff each had five winners; McGregor had four.
McGregor also had a pair of ace serves and Hamilton had 10 set-assists.
Kuehn and McGregor each had nine digs in the match; Lammers added eight.
Cedar Catholic was set to return to the court on Sept. 19, hosting Pierce in a Mid-State Conference match at the Msgr. Werner Activity Center.
The Lady Trojans will travel to O’Neill Sept. 21 for a triangular with the Lady Eagles and Wayne before hosting Battle Creek on Sept. 26.
Cedar Catholic defeats West Point-Beemer.
CC (10-8) 25 25 WPB (8-9) 22 19
CEDAR CATHOLIC: Grace Wortmann 5k, 1d, 1r; Annika Kuehn 7d, 1s, 7r; Faith Christensen 2d; Lexi Eickhoff 3k, 1b; Lauren Bernecker 9k, 5d, 6r; McKinlee Lammers 3d, 11r; Lyndsey Hamilton 1k, 1a, 1d, 12s; Melayna McGregor 6k, 1a, 5d, 10s, Addison Walter 2k, 2a, 2d; Brynn Bernecker 1k, 1b, 1d, 5r. Cedar Catholic defeats Arlington AR (2-9) 6 14 CC (9-8) 25 25 CEDAR CATHOLIC: NSA Ponca defeats Cedar Catholic. P (4-12) 24 25 27 CC(8-8) 26 23 25 CEDAR CATHOLIC: Bailey Hochstein 3d, 6r; Wortmann 6k, 2d, 6r; Kuehn 17d, 1s, 19r; Eickhoff 5k, 4b; Christensen 1b, 1r; L. Bernecker 8k, 1a, 6b, 2d, 9r; Arens 3k, 4b, 2r; Lammers 5d, 14r; Hamilton 8d, 17s; McGregor 7k, 1b, 8d, 13s, 6r; Walter 4k, 2a, 2b, 4d, 1r.