Cedar Mt. earns bragging rights

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

MORGAN -- Although Cedar Mountain and Comfrey are paired for boys sports, the two remain rivals in girls sports.

So when the two schools meet at fooball or boys basketball contest, there are bragging rights to be had when the topic of volleyball or girls basketball comes up.

On Monday, Cedar Mountain earned bragging rights, at least on the volleyball side, as the Cougars defeated the Rockets 25-11, 25-27, 25-9, 25-16 in nonconference volleyball action.

"It's like playing your sister," Comfrey coach Bruce Stresseman said. "You wanna play well. We see them all the time at football games. There's bragging rights in this."

"It's kind of funny, because for how much we are together, relastically with the girls, there's not a lot of camraderie between the girls," Cedar Mountain coach Heather Thiessen said. "But its still about being able to come out and play a game that realistically we need to play."

The Rockets, with only one senior on their roster, are a very young team. Early in the season, Stresseman predicted they were still a year away from where they wanted to be and predicted there would be a lot of growing pains in the process.

The Rockets struggled in the first game, but the potential showed in the second game. Down 24-20 with Cedar Mountain serving, the Rockets won the sideout, then scored the next four points to tie it at 24.

Both teams traded points, but the Rockets got the ball back in their possession and scored the next two points for the win.

"We got six people that are basically all new playing together, and we knew we were going to go through some growing pains," Stresseman said. "Game Two we played extremely well I think like we've played most of the year."

Whatever inspired the Rockets at the end of the third game apparently got left on the other side of the floor and the Cougars picked it up, scoring the first nine points of the game before a kill by Angie Hesse ended the run. Hesse was Comfrey's leading hitter with 11 kills, 16 digs, and five ace blocks.

"That's that turning on and off thing," Stresseman said. "We become easily satisfied, then we turn around, and it's hard to get them back again."

After the sideout, the Cougars again went on another short run. Katie Gewerth's hit put the Cougars up 13-1 and the Cougars led 23-4 before Hesse's kill ended another long run. Cedar Mountain won out to go up 2-1.

"I told the girls, before the fourth game, there's two sides to the court and we need to be able to win on both," Thiessen said. "Again there's nothing different, and that's why we can play so well in the first and third, and in the second and fourth struggle, and that's all just mental and have no letdowns."

The fourth game remained close until Amanda Hoffbeck's kill put the Cougars up 12-8. The Cougars went up 20-10, forcing a Comfrey timeout. Samantha Madsen's tip ended the final game at 25-16.

"It's just really inconsistantcy," Stresseman said. "It's a matter of communicating out there and learning to play together."

Statistically for Comfrey, freshman Sadie Kelly had 14 digs and Allie Kelly went 13-for-14 serving and 34-for-34 setting.

For the Cougars, Kelly Gewerth had 14 set assists, nine digs, and went 23-for-24 from the service line with two aces and Ashley Gewerth had 16 digs. Katie Gewerth had nine digs, eight kills, and three blocks. Sam Madsen had nine digs, and went 15-for-15 from the line with three aces. Shana Grejtak had six kills.

Comfrey (2-7) hosts Hills-Beaver Creek in a Red Rock Conference match today. Cedar Mountain (2-3, 0-3 in Tomahawk) is at McLeod West today.