Randolph girls post a 1-2 week on the volleyball court

RANDOLPH — The Randolph Lady Cardinal volleyball team still feels pretty good about where they are, despite going 1-2 last week.

Randolph (4-5) fell to Ponca 3-0 (25-5, 25-15, 25-10) then headed to a triangular that saw the Lady Cardinals beat Osmond 2-0 (25-23, 25-21) and fall to Tri-County Northeast (16-25, 25-23, 25-11).

Junior Bailey Beal had a big night in the triangular with 11 kills in the first game and 12 in the second.

“Against Ponca, we ran into a tough team that was really playing well that night, but we again didn’t help ourselves much with too many errors,” Randolph head coach Rob Engel said. “We came out really strong against a good Osmond team, we passed the ball really well and that let (setter) Erin (Engel) get the ball to the right places and we had some really good attacks from our hitters.

“We started out great against Tri County, but once that second set slipped away because of our own mistakes and their main hitter getting hot, we weren’t able to get our mentality back where it was. We have a lot of our regulars still getting their first varsity action, so we will just have to keep getting better every day.”

Ella Scott added six kills against Osmond while Beal locked down at the net with four blocks.

Scott added six kills against Tri-County Northeast, Jacey Bartels contributed four aces, Beal put down three blocks and Erin Engel quarterbacked the team with 23 assists.

As the schedule advances, the team appears to be ready for a good push.

“I feel like the conference is wide open, there are a lot of good teams, and anyone can beat anyone else on a given night if they play well,” Rob Engel said.

Randolph played at Neligh-Oakdale Tuesday and hosts Wausa on Thursday.

“Wausa has a strong team,” Rob Engel said. “We were really on fire last year when we played so I’m sure they will give us their best shot this time around.”

Emma Munter, a senior middle, has begun to get into a groove after dealing with injury.

“She was behind some seniors, now this year she is taking over the starting spot and has done a really nice job of blocking at the net and she has really taken to the slide attack when we have two hitters in the front row,” Coach Engel said. “Emma has improved so much since her freshman year, and she is giving us some good swings out of the middle this year.”

Munter said the team is getting closer to recapturing the same mojo they had a year ago when all of a sudden, a second COVID-19 shutdown changed all that.

“We have played a lot of C2 teams lately and we are keeping up with them pretty well,” Munter said. “I feel we are even doing a little bit better than last season. We have gotten our communication down and we know how to work together. It’s early so we just have to keep building on that for when October rolls around.”

Part of the improved symmetry has to do partially with the idea the Lady Cards had a normal summer compared to 2020 when they were fractured during the pandemic.

“We’ve been able to get into the gym a lot more and work with all of us instead of just some of us,” Munter said. “We went to league, camps, all kinds of stuff. We are definitely going in the right direction. We still need to work on our serve-receive more: That’s killed us in games. If you can’t pass the ball, you can’t really do anything.

“We have some very good serve-receivers, we just need to communicate more when the ball lands in between passers,” Munter said.

Randolph 5 15 10

Ponca 25 25 25

KILLS

RHS - Bailey Beal, 6; Ella Scott, 4; Emma Munter, 3; Jacey Bartels, 2; Brianna Sporleder, 1.

ACE
SERVES

RHS - Ella Scott, 1; Ariel Fye, 1; Jacey Bartels, 1.

BLOCKS

RHS - Bailey Beal, 2.

DIGS

RHS - Ariel Fye, 11; Grace Nordhues, 10; Erin Engel, 5; Ella Scott, 4; Jacey Bartels, 3; Brianna Sporleder, 1.

SET
ASSISTS