Lady Cards get off to a good start
HOWELLS — The Randolph Lady Cardinals jumped out to a good start on the new volleyball season last week.
The Lady Cards posted a 3-2 record, defeating three Lewis & Clark Conference foes, while losing to a pair of state-rated teams.
RHS opened the season Thursday in a triangular at Homer.
The Lady Cards swept Homer, but fell in three sets to state-rated Cedar Catholic, 19-25, 25-20, 12-25.
Cedar Catholic serving kept the Lady Cards off balance, as the Lady Trojans fired 18 ace serves over the net.
The Randolph offense was led in the contest by Jaiden Taylor’s five kills. Gracie Eledge led the RHS defense with nine digs.
Jaiden Taylor had five kills while Natalie Munter, Keely Pinkelman and Bailey Beal all chipped in with four kills each, Gracie Eledge had nine digs and Erin Engel had seven assists against Cedar Catholic.
In the Homer win, Beal had four kills and three total blocks, Eledge had nine digs and Engel had nine assists.
“We had a very busy start to the season playing five matches in three days, and so far we have been able to put into the games what we have been working on in practice,” Randolph head coach Rob Engel said.
Engel said he is very pleased with how his team performed against some top flight competition.
“We have a tough start to our schedule as a D2 team playing a C1 team in Homer and coming away with a win, we have also already played three teams that started the season in the top 10 preseason rankings in their respective classes with competitive losses to Cedar Catholic and Howells-Dodge, and a win over Winside.”
At Howells-Dodge, the Lady Cardinals swept Hartington-Newcastle 2-0 (25-19, 25-19) and beat Winside 2-1 (25-23, 17-25, 25-16) while falling to the hosts 2-0 (25-18, 25-13).
In the triumph over Winside, Randolph had four players with multiple kills, while Engel had six assists.
Against Winside, the Lady Cardinals got 11 kills from Beal, six from Taylor and five each from Pinkelman and Abby Schmit. Engel had 18 assists and Schmit chipped in with seven.
Eledge and Natalie Munter both served up three aces while defensively, Beal had four total blocks and Taylor had nine digs with Eledge and Engel had six apiece.
“I really liked our competitiveness and our hustle, our floor defense has been really good,” Engel said. “We still need to work on communication and maintaining our discipline in serve receive.”
Schmit was just glad to be back on the court after being forced into a COVID-19 precautionary quarantine prior to the opening of the season.
The senior setter was an all-conference performer who had to be sidelined after being notified she had attended an event where someone had come up with a positive test for the disease – hugging the person — the previous week — the first week of school and practice. She was joined in quarantining with three other girls whom Schmit had come in close contact with.
“The wedding was a week before I got the call, so I had a week left to quarantine,” Schmit said. “I was asymptomatic, and they just told me I had to stay home and they’d call back every once in a while to see if I had symptoms, which I never did.”
So, Schmit had to sit out another seven days to Aug. 24 before getting back on the court again.
“I had to work on all my stuff at home, alone,” Schmit said. “It was kind of crazy. I never thought I would get quarantined. I had to stay home, and I can’t do anything. Of course, I was upset because I wanted to go to practice. We had a jamboree the next Monday. It was difficult to adjust to, but I had to.
“It was very bizarre. It just came out of nowhere. I would have felt terrible if I had passed it to our team. That could have ruined our whole season.”
Well, Schmit has come back the way someone of her reputation would after the COVID setback.
“Abby has shown some great leadership over the summer and was voted a captain by the team,” Engel said. “She has come back strong (from the quarantine) and played well so far this year.”
Schmit was so happy just to get back at it after having a special quarantined practice on Aug. 23 so she could run out and play at the jamboree the following day.
“Once I got to step on that court and be all around everyone, it was so much fun,” she said. “I made the best of it. I am very proud of how we played. All the girls who came out of quarantine, all had the right mentality and adjusted very well to everything around us.”
Next, the Lady Cardinals travel to play at Laurel-Concord-Coleridge Thursday night.
KILLS Randolph - Jaiden Taylor, 5; Natalie Munter, 4; Keely Pinkelman, 4; Bailey Beal, 4; Abby Schmit, 1. Cedar - Laney Kathol, 8; Brooklyn Kuehn, 4; Gracie Dickes, 3; Makenna Noecker, 3; Brynn Wortmann, 2; Cady Uttecht, 1; Megan Heimes, 1; Meredith McGregor, 1.
ACE SERVES Randolph - Keely Pinkelman, 3; Jaiden Taylor, 2; Gracie Eledge, 2. Cedar - Megan Heimes, 9; Laney Kathol, 3; Meredith McGregor, 3; Brynn Wortmann, 1; Cady Uttecht, 1; Makenna Noecker, 1.
BLOCKS Randolph - Jenna Albers, 1; Bailey Beal, 1. Cedar- Laney Kathol, 3; Makenna Noecker, 2; Brooklyn Kuehn, 1; Brynn Wortmann, 1; Cady Uttecht, 1.
DIGS Randolph - Gracie Eledge, 9; Jaiden Taylor, 3; Erin Engel, 3; Ariel Fye, 2; Natalie Munter, 1; Keely Pinkelman, 1. Cedar - Megan Heimes, 8; Brynn Wortmann, 6; Olivia Hamiton, 3; Gracie Dickes, 2; Mackenna Noecker, 2; Laney Kathol, 1; Jordyn Steffen, 1.
SET ASSISTS Randolph - Erin Engel, 7; Abby Schmit, 5; Keely Pinkelman, 1. Cedar- Cady Uttecht, 11; Olivia Hamilton, 8.
KILLS Randolph - Bailey Beal, 6; Jaiden Taylor, 5; Abby Schmit, 3; Natalie Munter, 2; Keely Pinkelman, 2; Erin Engel, 2. HNS - Kayden Jueden, 10; Erin Folkers, 7; Alivia Morten, 1; Kennadi Peitz, 1; Keanna Korth, 1; Lauren Howell, 1.
SET ASSISTS Randolph - Erin Engel, 10; Abby Schmit, 4; Jaiden Taylor, 1. HNS - Alivia Morten, 15.
BLOCKS Randolph - Bailey Beal, 1. HNS - Keanna Koth, 1; Lauren Howell, 1.
DIGS Randolph - Gracie Eledge, 8; Natalie Munter,8; Keely Pinkleman, 6; Jaiden Taylor, 5; Abby Schmit, 3; Ariel Fye, 3; Erin Engel, 3. HNS - Olivia Grutsch, 21; Kayden Jueden, 16; Keanna Korth, 4; Erin Folkers, 3; Alivia Morten, 2.
KILLS Randolph - Natalie Munter, 2; Keely Pinkelman, 2; Abby Schmit, 1; Jaiden Taylor, 1.
SET ASSISTS - Randolph - Erin Engel, 9; Abby Schmit, 1.
BLOCKS Randolph - Bailey Beal, 3; Jaiden Taylor, 1; Erin Engel, 1.
DIGS Randolph - Gracie Eledge, 9; Ariel Fye, 5; Natalie Munter, 4; Keely Pinkelman, 2; Abby Schmit, 1; Jaiden Taylor, 1.
ACE SERVES Randolph - Jaiden Taylor, 1; Erin Engel, 1.
KILLS Randolph - Keely Pinkelman, 1; Jaiden Taylor, 1; Bailey Beal, 1.
BLOCKS Randolph - Keely Pinkelman, 1; Jaiden Taylor, 1; Erin Engel, 1; Bailey Beal, 1.
ACE SERVES Randolph - Keely Pinkelman, 1.
DIGS Randolph - Gracie Eledge, 4; Ariel Fye, 1; Abby Schmit, 1.
SET ASSISTS - Randolph - Erin Engel, 2.
KILLS Randolph - Bailey Beal, 11; Jaiden Taylor, 6; Abby Schmit, 5; Keely Pinkelman, 5; Natalie Munter, 4; Erin Engel, 3.
BLOCKS Randolph - Bailey Beal, 4; Jaiden Taylor, 3; Erin Engel, 1; Keely Pinkelman, 1.
ACE SERVES Randolph - Gracie Eledge, 3; Natalie Munter, 3; Jaiden Taylor, 1.
DIGS Randolph - Jaiden Taylor, 9; Gracie Eledge, 6; Erin Engel, 6; Keely Pinkelman, 5; Abby Schmit, 4; Natalie Munter, 4; Ariel Fye, 2.
SET ASSISTS - Randolph - Erin Engel, 18; Abby Schmit, 7; Gracie Eledge, 1.
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