Mustangs suppress Greyhounds

By JEREMY BEHNKE

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Buffalo Lake-Hector coach Susan Alstrom admitted after her team's game with New Ulm Cathedral that playing the Greyhounds on their home floor is never easy.

The Greyhounds hung tough with BLH and nearly beat the Mustangs in the first game, but BLH came from behind and won 26-24.

BLH won the next two games 25-21, 25-16 to win the Tomahawk Conference match Tuesday.

"They always play good, especially at home," Alstrom said. "I like to think of them as a real scrappy team. We never like to play them here because we know they're going to be scrappy and give us all that they've got."

"Usually it takes a while to get started," BLH hitter Birgetta Hammer said. "The second game is usually the best. We're a young team and we're learning to play together yet."

The Greyhounds led most of the first game and took a 14-10 lead on Chelsey Hillesheim's kill. Leah Ashburn's kill and ace serve cut the Cathedral lead to 17-14, and the Mustangs continued to cut away at the lead when Hammer found a hole in the Cathedral defense and picked up the kill to make it 21-20. After a late timeout by Cathedral, the Mustangs came back and won 26-24. Alstrom later said she told her players to settle down and play their game.

"I just told them to relax and play their game," Alstrom said. "We were getting called for a lot of things that we normally don't get called on. It was just like 'relax and play. Don't change your style, just play the game.'"

Hammer said it was a big win coming off a three-game loss to Renville County West.

"It's good to get a win," Hammer said. "We coulda played better. We did decent tonight."

"They dug up a lot balls and they returned a lot that we didn't think they would," Hammer said. Hammer finished the game with 10 kills, three tips, and one block.

"Tired or not, I think we did everything in the first game but beat them by two points," Cathedral coach Karan Whitmeyer said. "The first game we played them even up and even in the second game, I thought we had a nice comeback."

In the second game, Ashburn's kill put the Mustangs up 10-5 and a kill by Kami Jo Rath gave BLH a 16-9 lead.

The Greyhounds fought back and trailed 21-16, but the Mustangs won 25-21 to take a 2-0 lead.

Ashburn's kill in the third game put the Mustangs up 17-11, and a kill by Missy Deal made it 20-11. BLH won the third game 25-16.

"In the third game, they had wore us down a little bit," Whitmeyer said. "We lost a little bit of confidence, but we're not walking away hanging our heads."

For BLH, Ashburn finished with 13 kills and two blocks. Sophomore Sam Broderius, who is in her first year as setter after Monica Ashburn graduated a year ago, had 19 set assists.

"She's doing a great job," Hammer said. "Especially for her young age."

For Cathedral, Toni Hall went 11-for-12 at the service line with seven points, four aces, five kills, four blocks, and two ace tips.

Erin Schugel went 12-for-13 with eight service points and 12 set assists for the Greyhounds.

The Mustangs (7-4) host Minnesota Valley Lutheran Thursday while Cathedral (7-4, 3-2) is at Sleepy Eye Thursday.

Jeremy Behnke can be reached at jbehnke@nujournal.com