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LINCOLN — Cedar Catholic got the most out of its opening round match in the Class D1 State Volleyball Tournament Thursday at Pinnacle Bank Arena, unfortunately, the valiant effort put out by the Lady Trojans didn’t result in a win.
Cedar fell in five sets, 22-25, 25-19, 25-22, 26-28 and 8-15 in a grueling back-and-forth match to eventual state champion Superior.
The Lady Trojans almost claimed the win in the fourth set, as they got to match point while leading the Lady Wildcats two sets to one.
Back-to-back stuffs at the net by Brynn Bernecker and Katelyn Arens evened the fourth set up at 24-24, but a Reagan Meyers winner, one of her match-high 36 kills on the afternoon, put Superior up 25-24.
An error by the Wildcats, combined with a Lauren Bernecker smack to the other side of the court, and Cedar Catholic reached match point at 26-25.
Another Meyers kill tied the score, then an overpass kill by Halle Bargen and her tip kill just over the net in the right corner of the Cedar Catholic side of the court and the two teams were headed for the fifth set and the sprint to 15.
“We’re really disappointed we’re not going to get to move on,” Lady Trojan coach Denae Buss said. “But we have a lot to be proud of. We’ve faced a lot of adversity this season, but we just couldn’t quite finish here today. We worked so hard and I’m so proud of our team.”
In the final set, Anisten Wortmann scored first for Cedar on a kill but a couple winners by Meyers and a couple of hitting errors by the Lady Trojans and the Lady Wildcats were up 4-1 forcing Buss to ask for a timeout.
Meyers scored again coming out of the timeout, but a Superior hitting error made it 5-2.
The lead grew to 7-2 before the Lady Trojans responded. Melayna McGregor tipped a winner with her left hand, one of her team-high 14 kills, then she joined Addison Walter for a block then Lauren Bernecker slammed down a kill before Lady Wildcat coach Jessica Diehl called a timeout with Cedar within two points, 7-5.
