Teamwork talks Hounds

past clawless Cougars

By DAVE CLARK

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- The New Ulm Cathedral Greyhounds volleyball team may not have any individual superstars, so on Tuesday night they let the teamwork do the talking and swept the Cedar Mountain Cougars 15-10, 15-10, 16-14.

"I thought the girls really rose to the occasion," said Cathedral coach Karan Whitmyer. "Our (team) passing was pretty good tonight. Senior Kristin Beranek was not going to allow us to lose the last game. Her competitiveness at the end was the difference. (Outside hitter) Jessica Lewis hit the ball well, Liesl Genelin came through for us tonight, and Melissa Kraus had seven service points in the second game that gave us momentum."

The first game took as long to play as the other two put together, as the Greyhounds looked a little tentative and the Cougars couldn't gain any kind of sustained offense.

The score was locked at 10 with neither team able to gain more than a two-point lead, with eight ties.

A kill by the Hounds' Katie Gieseke made it 11-10, followed by two Cougar kill attempts that went out of bounds, an ace from Nikki Fischer, and a third Cougar kill attempt gave the Greyhounds the first game.

Something happened to the Greyhounds between the first and second game, as they began to get more aggressive on their serves and returns, even though the Cougars took a quick 4-0 lead on errant kill attempts and an ace from Lindsey Jensen.

This is where Kraus' seven service points came in. The first five resulted in a sudden 5-4 Greyhound lead as the Cougars suddenly had problems with their offense and from a Prairie Hady tip kill.

The Cougars later took a 10-8 lead, but it was Lewis' turn to take over at the service line, bringing the Greyhounds to a 13-10 advantage. She was helped by two kills from Amber Franta and three more mistakes by Cedar Mountain.

Lewis served the final two Cathedral points, with a tip kill from Gieseke and an out of bounds hit from the Cougars for another 15-10 victory. The Greyhounds then decided to make the third game interesting.

They didn't plan to make it interesting, as they ran off to an 8-1, then 11-2 lead. Kelly Kuehn, Hady, and Beranek were behind the line for 10 of the 11 points as the Greyhounds got kills from four players and the Cougars appeared to look beat.

But the Greyhounds suddenly began to look like the ones behind by nine points, and the Cougars outscored the Greyhounds 12-1 and took a 14-12 lead. This is where the senior leadership took over for the Greyhounds.

Beranek served, and watched as the Cougars hit the net, hit the ceiling and hit the net again. The final point came on a great kill by Franta after two terrific saves in the back line by teammate Gieseke.

For the Cougars, it was another learning experience for a young team.

"We need to start playing from point one to point 15," said Cougars coach Heather Thiesen. "We're still pretty young. At times, we had only one senior on the court. We have to pick up defensively, and get more aggressive."

Franta led the Greyhounds with seven ace hits and five ace blocks. Genelin had six ace hits, while Beranek had 15 set assists. Lewis was 15-for-15 with nine points from the service line, and Kraus was 18-for-19 with 14 points.

The win puts the Greyhounds at 3-5 overall, 1-2 in the Tomahawk Conference, while the Cougars drop to 0-4, all conference losses. The Greyhounds host Sleepy Eye High Thursday while the Cougars host Minnesota Valley Lutheran at Morgan, also on Thursday.