WSS volleyball takes down St. Anthony in NTC clash
Oct. 7—There is now a three-way tie atop the National Trail Conference volleyball standings.
Following a straight-set victory over St. Anthony Tuesday night, Windsor-Stewardson-Strasburg joins the Bulldogs and South Central tied for first place in the league.
The Hatchets defeated St. Anthony (18-5, 7-1 league) 25-21 in the first set and 25-22 in the second at Windsor High.
"We needed this win," Schlechte said. "I saw that they were running a rotation defense, so we talked about the holes that would be open in the weaker areas, and that's what we ran at practice. They give us a very strong front row, which kind of hurt us a little bit, but we got to keep working around those bigger blocks because we're going to keep seeing bigger and bigger throughout the season."
Ella Kinkelaar had two kills, 16 assists, and two digs for the Hatchets (13-5, 7-1 league). Gabby Vonderheide had two aces, six kills, 13 digs, and one block. Samantha Hayes had five kills, one block, and three digs. Kaylynn Carey had three kills and one block. Ainslie Eident had one ace, three assists, and five digs. Reese Bennett had three kills, one dig, and one block, and Maddie Rincker had one ace and two digs.
Libero Kinley Quast finished with one assist and five digs — tying for the second-least amount of digs in a match all season.
"Kinley was in her head tonight; she felt like she wasn't passing perfectly enough," Schlechte said. "We were talking with her as far as moving through the ball and getting those arms out. She was putting them a little too tight tonight, and sometimes it's hard to get them to refocus when they get in their heads like that."
Quast wasn't the only key Hatchet player to find herself struggling, though.
Halle Moomaw finished with five kills, one dig, and two blocks but never could quite find a consistent rhythm.
Schlechte said that an off-night in the passing game was one reason for that.
"We weren't getting a lot of our three passes to get the middle set up, and so the adjustment was not quite as fast as we needed them, and the connection between her and Ella [Kinkelaar] wasn't there like it normally is," Schlechte said.
Even though Moomaw struggled with her attacks, she made up for it with a strong night in serve-receive — an area that she and Schlechte have worked on a lot during the summer.
Moomaw finished with three aces.
"She has so much power and such a heavy arm. As we get runs, you can see that it's almost impossible to dig up, and we're going to need that to get farther in the postseason," Schlechte said.
As for the Bulldogs, Anna Faber had one ace, six assists, and five digs. Addie Wernsing had six assists and four digs. Andrea Rudolphi had eight kills and three digs. Laney Coffin had one dig. Abbi Hatton had four kills, two aces, and nine digs. Addi Nuxoll had one dig. Lucy Fearday had three blocks. Maddie Kibler had 11 digs. Anna Niemeyer had two kills, one ace, and two digs, and Sophia Seagle had one kill and three digs.
Contact EDN Sports Editor Alex Wallner at 618-510-9231 or alex.wallner@effinghamdailynews.com.
