St. Mary's sweeps Indians

By BENJAMIN TOMCZAK

Journal Sports Writer

SLEEPY EYE -- The $64,000 question is, "How do we win?"

It's the question that Sleepy Eye High has been asking itself all year, and not knowing the answer hurt the Indians again Thursday as they fell to Sleepy Eye St. Mary's in non-conference action 15-7, 15-11, 15-6 at St. Mary's High School.

In both games one and two the Indians got out to substantial leads. In both games the Indians (4-14, 0-8 Tomahawk) let the Knights (11-6, 4-3) get back into the game and steal the wins.

"We haven't won. We need to learn to win," Indian coach Kris Bloedel said. "We get to that point and say, 'We've never been here, we don't know what to do. We don't know how to finish.'"

In game one the Indians were leading 7-1 before the Knights could figure out what was going on. Mental lapses -- lifts, long kills, confusion in the middle and failure to convert serves -- characterized the early going.

"I told them Public was going to come out tough," Knight coach Becky Mathiowetz said. "I don't think they believed me.

"We played sloppy tonight. We weren't aggressive. Our passing wasn't anywhere close to where it usually is and the hitters struggled. We couldn't get in sync."

One of the toughest Indians was senior hitter Brooke Augustin. Augustin had a couple early blocks and kills that seemed to set the tone for Sleepy Eye High. Augustin faced off all night against the Knights big hitter, Emily Schroepfer, and finished with seven blocks and four kills.

"Brooke's real competitive," Bloedel said. "I thought she did a good job up there, that was one of her best blocking nights of the year."

Amber Windschitl and Allie Deibele were also a potent pair for the Indians, totaling eight and six kills respectively. Kristi Schieffert was doing the setting, with 17 assists.

But instead of coasting to an easy first win, the Indians asked, "How do we finish?"

While they were wondering, the Knights Annie Suker stepped up to the service line and scored six service points, the first four coming on Indian errors. The Knights ended up scoring the final 14 points.

When the Indians were able to break the Knight serve, they were unable to do anything with it, botching serves and kill attempts.

It didn't help that Ashley Meyer and Schroepfer were smacking the ball to all points on th Indian side, racking up 21 kills between them Thursday.

"Emily struggled a little tonight," Mathiowetz said, "but still led us in hitting.

"Meyer started really strong, but we stopped going to her."

Meyer, a junior hitter, had eight kills, most of them in game one.

The Indian lead in game two was 5-1. Again, St. Mary's came out a little slow, but once they got going, they really got going. At one point it looked as if Schroepfer decided the game was hers.

With the Knights up 10-8 and Amanda Helget serving, Schroepfer ripped off three straight kills, including one against an Augustin block attempt. Schroepfer ended the night with 13 kills, 12 digs, two ace serves and two blocks.

The battle between Augustin and Schroepfer in the front row was ongoing all night as the seniors took every opportunity to kill against or block the other.

"Both of them like to go at each other," Bloedel said.

"Neither one of them backed away," Mathiowetz commented, "It was nice to see."

The Indians battled back to 14-11 in game two, but a violation for four hits ended the rally.

Game three was all St. Mary's. The Knights went out to a 10-3 lead and the Indians just looked a little ragged, allowing four ace serves, and putting four serves into the net.

"We're playing two solid games," Bloedel said. "We need to play three to five solid games. We can't be satisfied with playing a little bit, we need to go for the win."

The Knights, on the other hand, went for the win in game three.

According to Mathiowetz, the Knights' fire in game three was a result of them grabbing back the momentum and playing their game.

"I told them, 'Don't let them pull you into the type of game they want to play. Make them play along with you.'"

When the Knights did that, they looked a whole lot better with solid play in the middle and back row from Suker (21 digs) and Casie Schumacher (13 digs).

Up front Amanda Helget was doing the majority of the setting, totaling 14 assists.

St. Mary's has a major test at Buffalo Lake-Hector Tuesday. The Mustangs have beaten the Knights the past four years and have deprived them of two trips to the state tournament in the last two years.

The Indians will face Minnesota Valley Lutheran at home, also on Tuesday, when MVL (14-2, 7-1) will play to keep themselves in the Tomahawk Conference hunt.

The Indian junior varsity won 2-0.