Lady Cards have busy week on the court
RANDOLPH — The Randolph Lady Cardinal volleyball team finished off a busy week with a 3-3 mark to move to 8-9 on the season.
Last Tuesday, the Lady Cardinals lost to host Wakefield 25-21, 25-11 and beat Walthill 25-11, 25-6 in a triangular before Saturday’s trip to Tilden for the Elkhorn Valley Invitational.
The Lady Cardinals beat the hosts 2-1 (20-25, 26-24, 25-21) and West Point-Beemer 2-1 (25- 23, 17-25, 25-18) while losing to powers Archbishop Bergan 2-0 (25-7, 25-9) and Battle Creek 2-1 (25-27, 25-10, 25-10) in the thirdplace game.
“We had some really good performances throughout the day,” head coach Rob Engel said of his Lady Cardinals performance at Elkhorn Valley. “Against Elkhorn Valley, Jacey Bartels had 10 digs and Ella Scott and Emma Munter each had five kills. In the West Point game, Erin Engel had 28 assists and seven digs and Bailey Beal led the way with 15 kills: She was really unstoppable for a while and our passers did a great job of getting the ball to Erin to set them up.
“Jacey led the way with five kills against Battle Creek to take a close first set but we ran out of gas in the last two sets. To play in a tournament like that and go 2-2 and take fourth against that kind of competition should give the team a lot of confidence moving forward.”
In the win against Walthill, Bartels had seven kills and Scott added four kills. Munter served four aces and Beal contributed four solo blocks.
Grace Nordhues had 16 digs against West Point-Beemer and Beal had nine kills and five solo blocks against Elkhorn Valley.
The sophomore Bartels continues to shine as varsity contributor for the Lady Cardinals as a player who can hit and play in the back row.
“She has done a great job stepping in as an outside hitter and she plays great defense in the back row,” Rob Engel said. “She is a really strong attacker and has a great attitude, she’s a really competitive player and wants to do everything she can to help the team.”
Bartels is acknowledged as having a “great personality,” and is similar in comportment to recent graduate Keely Pinkelman according to Engel.
“Me and (fellow sophomore) Ella, she is also an all-around player, we put in a lot of practice this summer, and during preseason is where we put in all the work and it’s really paying off,” Bartels said. “Ella has really stepped up and Bailey is always going to have a good year. She is so good.”
“(Pinkelman’s) are big shoes to fill. I know when Keely comes to games, I try to step up my playing abilities. She was the person I first looked up to when I first joined the volleyball team: She is so nice and kind and everyone on the volleyball team likes her.”
Bartels likely made her idol proud this weekend and over the course of the week overall.
“Finishing second in our pool was a really big step,” Bartels said. “It was a really good day for us. When we beat (Elkhorn Valley) in the second set, we were so excited and we carried that over to the other games. We played early in the morning and started slow before we started picking it up. Our passing was on point. I don’t know if it was because it was morning for them, but we saw them play better in the afternoon. But if they played that level when we played them, I think we still could have beaten them.
“(After Bergen) we went to the locker room and had talk about what we needed to fix. The seniors and juniors had a really big step up in that conversation and we figured things out … and we had a lot of side conversations. It ended up helping us pull through against Beemer. For me, personally, I know I didn’t want to get kicked in the butt like that again against Bergen and we all kicked it into gear after that.”
Bartels noted that Bergen was just physically superior, but the Lady Cardinals were also not communicating well and were unable to move into better positions. Then they ended the day on wobbly legs.
“They had a really good outside hitter, and she would just smash it on us: Rob said we were beat before we got on the court, because we were probably intimidated by how good they were,” Bartels said. “When we played Battle Creek, I think all of us were tired. Rob said during the game that it was a battle, and it was a matter of who would get tired first. We put up a fight, but playing three, three-set matches in a day, I know that I was tired.”
Randolph played host to Creighton Tuesday and travels to play Winside and Bloomfield in a Saturday triangular.
Randolph 25 25
Walthill 11 6
KILLS
Randolph - Jacey Bartels, 7; Ella Scott, 4; Bailey Beal, 3; Erin Engel, 2; Taylor Mavis, 1; Brianna Sporleder, 1.
ACE SERVES
Randolph - Emma Munter, 4; Erin Engel, 3; Ella Scott, 2; Jacey Bartels, 2; Eva Bermel, 1; Ariel Fye, 1.
DIGS
Randolph - Ella Scott, 5; Jacey Bartels, 4; Ariel Fye, 3; Ryanne Winkelbauer, 3; Taylor Bloomquist, 2; Erin Engel, 2; Ava Bermel, 1.
SETS ASSISTS
Randolph - Erin Engel. 8; Ariel Fye, 3; Emma Munter, 1; Eva Bermel, 1.
Randolph 21 11
Wakefield 25 25
KILLS
Randolph - Bailey Beal, 3; Ella Scott, 2; Erin Engel, 2; Jacey Bartels, 2; Emma Munter, 2; Brianna Sporleder, 1. ACE SERVES
ACE SERVES
Randolph - Erin Engel, 1.
BLOCKS
Randolph - Bailey Beal, 1; Emma Munter,1.
DIGS
Randolph - Ariel Fye, 4; Jacey Bartels, 4; Ella Scott, 3; Ryanne Winkelbauer, 2; Erin Engel, 2; Emma Munter, 1.
SETS ASSISTS
Randolph - Erin Engel, 8.
Randolph 25 17 25
West Point 23 25 18
KILLS
Randolph - Bailey Beal, 15; Jacey Bartels, 6; Ella Scott, 4; Emma Munter, 4; Brianna Sporleder, 3; Erin Engel, 2.
ACE SERVES
Randolph - Ariel Fye, 2; Erin Engel, 1; Ella Scott, 1.
BLOCKS
Randolph - Erin Engel, 1; Bailey Beal, 1.
DIGS
Randolph - Grace Nordhues, 16; Jacey Bartels, 9; Erin Engel, 7; Ella Scott, 6; Ariel Fye, 4.
SETS ASSISTS
Randolph - Erin Engel. 28; Grace Nordhues, 1.
Randolph 27 10 10
Battle Creek 25 25 25
KILLS
Randolph - Jacey Bartels, 5; Bailey Beal, 4; Ella Scott, 1; Erin Engel,1.
ACE SERVES
Randolph - Bailey Beal, 2; Emma Munter, 1; Ariel Fye, 1.
BLOCKS
Randolph - Brianna Sporleder, 1; Bailey Beal, 1.
DIGS
Randolph - Ella Scott, 9; Jacey Bartels, 8; Grace Nordhues, 8; Ariel Fye, 2; Erin Engel, 1.
SETS ASSISTS
Randolph - Erin Engel. 9.
Randolph 7 9
Fremont Bergan 25 25
KILLS
Randolph - Bailey Beal, 1; Jacey Bartels, 1; Ella Scott, 1; Brianna Sporleder, 1.
ACE SERVES
Randolph - Ariel Fye, 1.
BLOCKS
Randolph - Bailey Beal, 1.
DIGS
Randolph - Ella Scott, 5; Grace Nordhues, 4; Erin Engel, 4; Ryanne Winkelbauer, 2; Emma Munter, 1.
SETS ASSISTS
Randolph - Erin Engel.3; Grace Nordhues, 1. 1
Randolph 20 26 25 1
Elkhorn Valley 25 24 21 1
KILLS 1
Randolph - Bailey Beal, 9; Ella Scott, 5; Emma Munter, 5; Erin Engel, 4; Brianna Sporleder, 2; Ariel Fye, 1.
ACE SERVES
Randolph - Ariel Fye, 1; Jacey Bartels, 1.
BLOCKS Tulip
Tulip Randolph - Bailey Beal, 5; Emma Munter, 2.
DIGS Choos
Choos Randolph - Jacey Bartels, 10; Grace Nordhues, 7; Ella Scott, 6; Ariel Fye, 3; Emma or Sat Munter, 1; Bailey Beal, 1; Erin Engel, 1; Brianna Sporleder, 1. (7903
SETS ASSISTS
Randolph - Erin Engel, 18; Grace Nordhues, 2; Ella Scott, 1.
