Cedar Catholic girls claim third-place honors at Wakefield tournament

WAKEFIELD - Cedar Catholic went 3-2 in the annual Wakefield Invitational volley ball tournament here Sept 12 and 14.

The Lady Trojans dropped the opening match to Pierce before reeling off three consecutive wins over Ponca, Tekamah-Herman and Lyons-Decatur Northeast before dropping their final match in the tournament to Laurel-Concord-Coleridge.

No stats were available for the LCC or the Lyons-Decatur Northeast match.

The match with the Lady Bears went to to Laurel-Concord-Coleridge in a sweep, 25-20 and 25-18.

The Lady Trojans came up against the Lady Tigers and after T-H won the opening set 26-24, Cedar Catholic turned back the Lady Tigers in the next two sets to take the match.

“This was a good team win,” Lady Trojan coach, Denae Buss said. “We really used our serve to our advantage and set ourselves up for success that way.”

Addison Walter served up five aces in the match as Cedar Catholic had 10 total.

Melayna McGregor and Lyndsey Hamilton split setting up the Lady Trojan attack with 14 and 11 set assists respectively.

Katelyn Arens took advantage of a dozen of those feeds with a dozen slams.

Earlier in the tournament, the Lady Trojans defeated Ponca and lost a match to Pierce after defeating Lyons-Decatur Northeast.

In the match with Ponca, Lauren Bernecker had nine winners, McGregor had six and Brynn Bernecker and Walter had three each.

“We did a very good job of coming out focused on the task at hand,” Buss said. “We really came out and showed the power of our hits and were aggressive with the ball, we had talked about that fact with our last few games.”

Pierce downed Cedar Catholic for the second time this season, this time 25-11 and 25-12.

“Our team attitude was something we talked about and I thought we hung in there and really learned some things from our first time we played each other,” Buss said. “We kept trying different things the entire game. We did a much better job reading on defense and getting touches with the block.”

Cedar Catholic was set to host a big triangular with 9-1 Elgin Public/Pope John and 6-2 Norfolk Catholic at the Werner Activities Center on Sept. 17 before heading to the Stanton Tournament Sept. 24. The Lady Trojans will face Pierce again on Sept. 24 in Pierce in Mid State Conference play.

LCC def. Cedar Catholic 25-20, 25-18.

k=Kills, a=Ace Serves, b=Blocks, d=Digs, s=Set Assists, r= Successful Passes.

Cedar def Tekamah-Herman 24-26, 25-17, 25-16. CEDAR CATHOLIC (5-7): Brynn Bernecker 3k, 2b, 2d; Anisten Wortmann 1k, 4d, 1s, 2r; Savannah Pick 1a; Lauren Bernecker 5k, 1b, 4d, 14r; Katelyn Arens 12k, 3b, 2d, 1s, 1r; Lyndsey Hamilton 2k, 1a, 6d, 11s; Melayna McGregor 5k, 1a, 2b, 5d, 14s, 13r; Addison Walter 4k, 5a, 2b, 1d, 1r; Calley Stewart 1k; McKinlee Lammers 5d, 1s, 2r; Bailey Hochstein 1a, 13d, 1s, 17r. Pierce defeats Cedar Catholic 25-11, 25-12. CEDAR CATHOLIC: B. Bernecker 2k, 2r; Wortmann 2k, 4r; Pick 1r; L. Bernecker 5d, 6r; Arens 3k, 1r; Hamilton 4s; McGregor 1k, 1b, 1d, 5s; Walter 1k, 1a, 1b; Stewart 1r; Lammers 2d, 10r, Hochstein 1a, 4d, 6r. Cedar Catholic defeats Ponca 25-12, 25-23. CEDAR CATHOLIC: B. Bernecker 3k, 1b, 1d, 1r; Wortmann 3k, 1b, 1d; L. Bernecker 9k, 1a, 4d, 1r; Arens 2k, 1b; Hamilton 1d, 13s; McGregor 6k, 2a, 5d, 8s, 3r; Walter 3k, 2a, 1d; Lammers 5d, 1s, 16r; Hochstein 8d, 3r. Cedar Catholic def. Lyons-Decatur 2-0.