Lady Cardinals celebrate first win
RANDOLPH - The Randolph Lady Cardinal volleyball team gathered its first win of the 2024 season with a sweep over Walthill in a triangular played in Wake- field on Sept. 24.
The Lady Cardinals defeated the Lady Blujays 25-23 and 25-19 to secure the win.
In the same triangular, Randolph lost to Wakefield 25-19 and 25-12.
O'Neill St. Mary's came to Randolph on Sept. 26 and defeated the Lady Cardinals 25-19, 25-5 and 25-14 in a best-of-five-sets match.
'In the St. Mary's match we played extremely well in the first set,' Coach Lyndsee English said. 'We played point for point with them until late in the set when we made a couple of errors which led to them taking the set.'
After dropping the second set, the Lady Cardinals got up and made a match out of set three.
'We fell completely flat in the second set before coming out and putting up a strong fight in the third set,' English said. 'There was a long rally in the set that we ended up winning, that signified the never-give- up attitude that we are starting to see and have been wanting to see from our girls.'
Katarina Greiner and Mabel Ngebeh had three kills each to pace the Randolph attack. Brooke Meier had a couple of ace serves, two kills, six set assists and 10 digs.
Greiner also accounted for 10 digs Ngebeh had eight and Sydney Robinson registered six digs.
Lexi Backhaus had four assists.
'I feel like everyone is settling into our
spots and playing better each game,' Back- haus said. 'I feel like we are playing more like a team in our recent matches. We're concentrating on serve receive, trying to get better at that. We'll keep working.'
In the win over the Lady Blujays, Ran- dolph made some hay at the service line.
The Lady Cardinals served up eight aces led by Ngebeh and Meier with three each, Greiner added two.
'It wasn't the prettiest game but a win is a win,' English said. 'I'm hoping for a confidence boost moving forward.'
Greiner hit six winners at the net, Nge- beh added five, Backhaus four and Lilly Kuchta slammed three.
Backhaus and Meier had 11 and eight assists respectively.
Against the Lady Trojans, the Lady Car- dinals came out strong in the first set.
'We had an early lead and the first set was back and forth,' English said. 'Then we ran into a really tough server which allowed them to pull away.'
Kuchta led the Randolph attack with five kills.
The Lady Cardinals were set to take on Creighton on the road Oct. 1 then will take some time o before a date with Bloom -
field on Oct. 10 at home in Randolph.
O'Neill St. Mary's defeats Randolph 25-19, 25-5, 25-14.
Randolph Statistics: Brooke Meier 2 Aces, 2 Kills, 6 Assists, 10 Digs; Katarina Greiner 3 Kills, 10 Digs; Mabel Ngebeh 3 Kills, 8 Digs; Lexi Backhaus 4 Assists; Sydney Robinson 6 Digs.
Wakefield defeats Randolph 25-19, 25-12. Randolph Statistics: Meier 2 Assists, 11 Digs; Greiner 2 Kills; Ngebeh 2 Aces, 2 Kills, 7 Digs; Backhaus 5 Assists; Robinson 6 Digs; Lilly Kuchta 5 Kills.