Friday our girls traveled to C4 to finish up their time in Premier League. A disappointing record in this league didn’t discourage our girls Friday. We came out and played some of our best volleyball to date!
The first match included a rematch against the boys of High Performance. The two met earlier in an H2 tournament where the teams split their sets. The boys went on to win the tournament where the girls took first in Copper. Our girls have come a long way since then and handled business taking the match 25-13, 25-17. The girls were led by Megan Knobeloch, Claire Dunivan, and Jena Holder who were all 100% on their serves! The three combined for an impressive 9 aces against a resilient serve receive.
The final match of the day featured H2 Cardinal vs St. Charles Stars. The Stars, who also beat the boys in straight sets, came out ready to play. Our girls battled through adversity as Libero Hanna Materelli went down in the middle of the first set. A collision with a setter led to a bloody nose and a spot on the bench the rest of the match. She recovered fine but the coaches decided to sit her the rest of the match to be safe (against her wishes).
A switch in the lineup led to some confusion, as the girls have not played yet without Hanna on the court. The Stars tied up the set 10-10 and the building was filled with noise from both fan sections. Our girls regrouped and won the first set 25-19. Heading into the second set, Sara Gouy changed jerseys and took on the role of Libero for the first time this season. The Stars had a tall middle with an aggressive serve that led to a 3-11 deficit for our girls. We rallied behind our next server, Mackenzie Heberer, who served 6 aces in 7 attempts. The game was tied at 12 and the girls pushed their way to a 25-18 victory. Mackenzie was 9 for 9 serving this game and Claire and Megan were at 100% for the second straight match. Zoë Byron was 91% going 10/11.
The girls were 4-0 in sets on the day, a personal best for the team. Claire finished 10/10, Megan finished 18/18 with 6 aces and Mackenzie finished 17/18 (94%) with 10 aces!
We were very excited to see the girls battle through adversity and Sara stepped into the Libero role wonderfully! The girls are firing on all cylinders coming into the biggest tournament of the year. We will have two more practices before traveling to the now vacant Edwards Jones Dome (sad) for President’s Day! We are excited to have the opportunity to compete at such a large tournament and we know it will be a great experience for our girls!
