Lady Bears hand Randolph girls a volleyball defeat
RANDOLPH — The Randolph Lady Cardinals volleyball team moved to 3-3 overall with a defeat in its only match last week going the way of Laurel-Concord-Coleridge.
Randolph fell to the Lady Bears 3-0 (25-15, 25-14, 25-21) and despite the result, head coach Rob Engel saw some things he liked out of his Lady Cardinals squad.
“We had a balanced attack, spreading the kills around with all of our hitters, Erin moved the ball around well, and Grace Nordhues ended up with nine digs in the match on defense,” Engel said. “We didn't play very sharp against LCC, the girls hustled well but didn't execute the way we would like, we made too many self-inflicted mistakes and gave them too many easy opportunities to score. We had hoped to build on the momentum from (the previous week) but just couldn't put it together.
“In the third set, we came out hot and took a big early lead, but we let them back in with errors and couldn't finish out the set, we will have to keep working on that.”
Engel noted the play of sophomores Jacey Bartels and Ella Scott as they both continue to improve and gain valuable playing time.
“They will continue to get better with more experience, they will make some mistakes as they go, but they keep learning and working hard,” Engel said.
Randolph played at home against Ponca on Tuesday and will play a triangular at Allen Thursday along with Osmond and Tri-County Northeast.
“Osmond has been off to a hot start this year so far, we will have to be solid in our passing against their tough servers and use our size advantage,” Engel said.
Junior Brianna Sporleder has also been making an impact in her real go on the varsity team.
“She is playing the right side opposite of the setter and has been learning the position since she was a middle hitter last year,” Engel said. “Brianna has been getting better at setting our block and getting good attacks on the right side. She has worked hard over the summer to get where she is and has good instincts for the game.”
Sporleder said the loss against LCC came a little unexpected as the Lady Cardinals defense, serving and hitting just seemed a step behind what they are normally used to.
“It was kind of a long week before with all the games we had to play, so I felt our heads weren’t all the way in it,” Sporleder said. “I feel like we went in pretty confident and thought we were going to win, but all the errors got into our heads, and we weren’t playing our best as a team. That didn’t help.
“It was the little things that helped them. It was just a realization that we have to put in all our effort, and we have to stay after it. Going forward I think we will be pretty good.”
Sporleder added that a reason why the Lady Cardinals can bounce back is the connection the players have after playing so long together.
“That helps with team chemistry,” Sporleder said. “We just have to really work on trusting our defense and sort out the little things like our serving and hitting – those were where most of the errors were.”
The team needs to communicate better, too, she said.
“Against Laurel we had a lot of time where we had collisions — two players going for the same ball or not at all,” she said.
LCC 25 25 25
Randolph 15 14 21
KILLS Randolph - Ella Scott, 3; Bailey Beal, 3; Jacey Bartels, 3; Erin Engel, 2; Emma Munter, 2; LCC- Mollie Schutte, 8; Mallory Eriksen, 8; Tali Erwin, 7; Kinsey Hall, 5; Berniece McCorkindale, 2; Reggan Kuhlman, 2; J. Urwiler, 1;
ACE SERVES Randolph- Ella Scott, 1; Emma Mnter, 1; Bailey Beal, 1; Jacey Bartels, 1. LCC - Berniece McCorkindale, 4; Kinsey Hall, 3; Mallory Eriksen, 1.
SET ASSISTS Randolph - Erin Engel, 11. LCC - Kinsey Hall, 22; Berniece McCorkindale, 2; Tali Erwin, 1; Ella Hartung. BLOCKS LCC -Mollie Schutte, 1. Ran
BLOCKS LCC -Mollie Schutte, 1. Randolph - Bailey Beal, 2; Erin Engel, 1; Brianna Sporleder, 1.
DIGS Randolph - Grace Nordhues, 9; Ella Scott, 5; Jacey Bartels, 5; Ariel Fye, 4; Erin Engel, 1; Emma Munter, 1. LCC - Berniece McCorkindale, 11; Cassie Granquist, 9; Kinsey Hall, 8; Jordynn Urwiler, 6; Mallory Eriksen, 4; Tali Erwin, 3; Mollie Schutte, 2; Ella Hartung, 1.
