LAUREL — The Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Lady Bears out-dualed the Cedar Catholic Lady Trojans here on the volleyball court Oct. 15 with a 25-16, 25-19 and 25-17 sweep.
“Laurel-Concord-Coleridge is a good team, they have some great pieces but I thought we played well and could see the things we have been working on steadily improving,” Cedar Catholic coach, Denae Buss said. “We found some new areas to work on but we will keep pushing forward.”
The Lady Trojans grabbed a lead in the first set after a Lyndsey Hamilton second-hit winner found the court to make it 12-10.
Rena Rasmussen answered for the Lady Bears when she rifled a Cedar Catholic overpass back to the Lady Trojans side of the net to make it 12-11.
A Carlie Kvols winner down the line tied the set for LCC 12-12, but a Lady Bears service error gave the lead back to Cedar Catholic.
“We really showed some composure tonight, composure I haven’t seen to this degree this season,” Lady Bears coach, Julie Kvols said. “These girls just hate to lose and I really think they can go as far as they want to go, we just need to stay together and stay focused.”
Rasmussen got busy slamming a kill off the Lady Trojan block, served an ace and hammered another winner to put Laurel-Concord-Coleridge in the lead 15-13. A Lady Trojan error and another LCC winner made it 17-13 and forced Cedar Catholic coach, Denae Buss to call a timeout.
The Lady Trojans were called for two hits after the timeout then back-to-back kills by Tali Erwin made it 20-14, causing Buss to ask for another timeout.
Lauren Bernecker hit a winner after the timeout to make it 20-15,
Omaha World Herald Class C1 Top 10
1. Minden 29-0 2. Clarkson/Leigh 27-2 3. Kearney Catholic 20-5 4. Columbus Scotus 24-5 5. Pierce 23-4 6. Battle Creek 22-6 7. LCC 25-3 8. Columbus Lakeview 18-8 9. Wahoo 20-7 10. Omaha Concordia 21-12 but a Lainey Schutte kill, a Cedar Catholic hitting error, an Erwin ace and another second-shot tip by Kvols made it 24-15.
The Lady Trojans lasted one set point, but a Schutte winner found its way through the Lady Trojan block and Laurel-Concord-Coleridge took the first set by the 25-16 final score.
The Lady Bears were up 22-17 in the second set when Brynn Bernecker nailed a winner for the Lady Trojans, but a Cedar Catholic error and a Tyler Recob smash made it 24-18.
The Lady Trojans got a block at the net, but LCC closed out the set on a Cedar Catholic hitting error to go up 2-0 in the match.
Laurel-Concord-Coleridge was only up 15-13 in what would be the final set when Kaida Eriksen slammed an overpass and Rasmussen got one of her match-leading 16 kills to make it 18-14.
Kvols hit a winner coming out of the timeout then Rasmussen smacked another to the baseline.
Erwin hit a kill to make it 23-17, Recob hit a kill then Erwin finished the set and the match with an ace serve.
“Our adrenaline really gets going and we just keep playing,” Erwin said. “We work really hard together and we just want to win. It’s getting to the time of the year where the matches get bigger and more important, I like this time of year. We’re planning to go to state.”
“Like I said, I feel these girls can go as far as they want to go,” Kvols said. “We’ll keep working and see just how far that is.”
“We talked in the locker room after the match about how we are in a good place right now to push forward into our post season,” Buss said. “Hitting-wise, we put together a good aggressive effort which is something we’ve also been talking about.”
k=Kills, a=Aces Serves, b=Blocks, d=Digs, s=Set Assists, r=Successful Passes.
LCC def. Cedar 25-16, 25-19, 25-17.
CEDAR CATHOLIC (10-15): Brynn Bernecker 2k, 2b; Anisten Wortmann 5k, 2b, 1d, 3r; Lauren Bernecker 4k, 1a, 2b; 10d, 6r; Katelyn Arens 4k, 3b; Lyndsey Hamilton 3k, 1a, 4d, 9s; Melayna McGregor 4k, 1b, 7d, 10s, 2r; Addison Walter 3k, 3b; 2d, McKinlee Lammers 6d, 6r; Bailey Hochstein 8d, 38r.
LCC (24-3): Lainey Schutte 3k, 1a, 2b, 6d, 1s, 10r; Tyler Recob 8k, 1b, 1d; Tali Erwin 9k, 2a, 1b, 9d, 8r; Rena Rasmussen 16k, 1a, 11d, 5s, 6r; Carlie Kvols 3k, 8d, 33s; Kaida Eriksen 3k, 8d, 1s, 11r;
NSAA Power Points Class C1
Minden 29-0 47.1034 Clarkson/Leigh 27-2 45.1724 Kearney Catholic 20-5 44.9200 Pierce 23-4 44.8889 Columbus Scotus 24-5 44.8276 Battle Creek 22-6 44.7857 LCC 25-3 44.4286 Columbus Lakevw 18-8 44.4231 Chase County 21-9 44.3667 Holdrege 18-6 44.2917 Wahoo 20-7 44.0741 Ogallala 23-7 44.0667 Milford 18-8 43.9231 Omaha Concordia 21-12 43.3939 Broken Bow 18-8 43.2692 David City 21-8 43.0690 Adams Central 19-11 43.0667 Ashland-Greenwd 16-9 42.8400 Palmyra 19-8 42.7778 North Bend 19-10 42.7586 Gothenburg 17-9 42.5385 Fairbury 19-10 42.4138 Central City 20-6 42.3077 Raymond Central 15-11 42.3077 Malcolm 16-11 42.1852 Conestoga 19-9 42.1786 Auburn 17-13 42.0333 Bridgeport 18-11 41.6897 Chadron 18-18 41.0833 Douglas Co West 15-12 41.0741 Omaha Nation 22-5 40.7407 Omaha Roncalli 11-16 40.6296 Grand Island CC 11-15 40.5385 Louisville 13-13 40.4615