Randolph girls hoping they can complete a full season

RANDOLPH — After the struggles with COVID-19 that saw the Randolph volleyball season compromised multiple times due to the virus and subsequent quarantines, the Lady Cardinals hope to see a full basketball season go off.

Second-year head coach Marcus Pappenhausen will bring back a strong number of players from a team that finished 7-15 after losing the sub-district final to eventual D2 state champions Wynot.

“This year we will have much more experience than last year’s team - returning all five starters and top two off the bench,” Pappenhausen said. “We have girls that are interchangeable at all positions. This group of girls really plays well as a team and doesn’t care who gets the recognition.”

The one issue they may have to overcome is finding that alpha scoring who can take over where they need to.

But Pappenhausen does have a lot of girls who should contribute.

“We don’t have that dead-on threat to the opposing team,” Pappenhausen said. “As a team we can beat you, but we are still looking to find that one girl who could get a bucket when we need it. We are also looking to find a way in our offense to score more points.”

“With the experience and depth this year that we have we hope to play high pressure defense and run and gun offense. We need to get steals to create our offense and without a girl who can score easily that is the way we will score. The girls enjoy playing this way as well.”

The Lady Cardinals will do what they can do to raise the stakes against a competitive slate of games as they only play two D2 schools the entire campaign.

“We play a lot of C2 and D1 schools and we even have a couple C1 schools on our schedule,” Pappenhausen said. “When looking at our schedule, I don’t find a night where you go into the game thinking that is a win. It will always be a battle.”

The Lady Cardinals will go into battle with seniors - Gracie Eledge, Natalie Munter, Jaiden Taylor, Emmalee Harder, Keely Pinkelman and Jenna Albers. juniors - Emma Munter, Ryanne Winkelbauer, Ariel Frye and Grace Nordhues will also come in handy along with a number of underclassmen.

The hangover of multiple volleyball quarantines does linger, but the optimism is still there.

“We have a lot of experience and six seniors, so we have a lot of people who know the game and are excited to start the season,” Natalie Munter said. “We are very cautious about COVID and wearing masks everywhere and trying to not lose our season due to it. We just try to stay safe and stay home.

“We have basically the same team coming back so we have to just keep improving and get better. We are really focusing on team bonding and be as one and work together.”

Munter said the team’s strengths are still too early to flesh out early in the preseason, but she hopes the team’s ability to communicate and its defense should be still at the top of their ‘best of’ list.

“We are a very hardworking team trying to get the ball back,” Munter said.

Munter admits this hasn’t been the ideal senior year, but she aims to be prudent and make the most of the situation.

“You just take it day by day,” she said.

The big battle could ultimately come back to COVID-19 and if the Lady Cardinals can get to the finish line.

“I’m nervous about getting a full season in,” Pappenhausen said. “People need to mask up and avoid the three C’s (crowded places, close-contact settings and confined and enclosed spaces). If not for yourself then do it for those around, you. We need to keep our schools open and let this age group partake in the activities that they are used to.”

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