Eagles ace St. Peter

By BENJAMIN TOMCZAK

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- Consistency kills, when you don't have it.

The St. Peter Saints did not play with any kind of consistency Tuesday night and New Ulm High took advantage of that on its way to a 15-0, 15-5, 15-9 South Central Conference victory.

The match could be typified by the last three Saints' points.

With the Saints down 12-9 in game three, the Eagles' Amanda Paa stepped up to serve. Each rally ended with a St. Peter kill attempt that failed -- one under the net, one into the net and one that went long. And that's how the game went for the Saints (0-9, 0-5).

"It's almost like they're analyzing too much," Saints coach Chris Anderson said, "rather than playing the game."

The Eagles on the other hand had consistency. They consistently found the Saints' weak spots and refused to allow them to get into any of the games.

The most striking example of this consistency to find Saint weak spots came in game three. Junior outside hitter Abby Clancy had four of her six ace serves in the third game, and each of them was directed at the Saint's back, left corner -- specifically senior setter Emily Carlson.

"We were going after their weak passers," Eagle coach Rebekah Otte said. "Abby's got a nice top-spin serve that really drops when it gets over the net. She did a great job today keeping that under control and getting them in."

Clancy also had six digs on the night.

Or maybe one could go to the opening moments of games one and two to find some more Eagle consistency.

The Eagle's big gun on the outside, Tiffany Drill, notched her biggest kills of the night to end the first two rallies of the Saints in game one and the first three in game two.

Even when the Eagles weren't playing their best, they were solid enough to keep the Saints pinned down.

After breezing through the first game 15-0, the Eagles bogged down in game two. It took St. Peter a while to get its first point, so the Eagles really didn't have to worry, leading 9-1, and the Saints were unable to capitalize on any opportunities.

The Eagles were unable to get any kind of attack going for two cycles through the serving rotation in game two until Allison Boddy stepped up.

The senior outside hitter served a convincing ace to make it 14-5 and had that followed up by a Jodi Schmidt kill that hit the net and rolled over, falling onto the Saints' side.

Boddy finished the night with nine kills, a team-high, and had eight digs, also leading the team. Schmidt had seven kills.

Senior setter Paa led the Eagles, and all players with 27 set assists on the night. Drill had seven kills and Steph Navara was perfect from the service line with two aces.

Game three saw more flat Eagle play as the Saints got out to a 7-4 lead. After a New Ulm High timeout, however, it was more of the same solid Eagle consistency.

Down two, 7-5, Drill made a diving save on a ball headed out of bounds to force a Saints' side out and bring the ball back to New Ulm.

Clancy nailed two more aces and Boddy led the charge with kills to force sides out and another ace serve that turned a 7-5 deficit into a 12-9 lead.

"Alli's always the go-to player." Otte said. "She's not a physically dominating player, but she's a smart player, she'll get good hits and she knows where to place it, and she's such a leader on the court. She can really step up and take control."

Overall Otte was satisfied with her team's performance, which earned the Eagles' their tenth win of the season, improving their record to 10-5 overall and 3-1 in the SCC.

Despite the loss, it wasn't all doom and gloom for the Saints. Said Anderson, "Our passing came around tonight. That's probably the best we've passed all season."

Andrea Berg led the Saints with five blocks, three kills and one ace serve. Teri Clementson had two aces and freshman Stacy Lamoreuz had 10 set assists. Carlson led the team with seven digs.

New Ulm High will be playing in the Blue Earth Area Tourney Saturday. St. Peter will face Montgomery today.

The Eagles had their first sweep of the season with the freshmen, junior varsity and varsity teams all winning.

The freshmen were victorious by scores of15-9, 8-15, 15-7. The junior varsity squad won in two games, 18-16, 15-10.