Cedar girls earn 20th win of 2022

HARTINGTON — After a tough loss the previous week against Wynot, the Cedar Catholic volleyball team found its standard once again over a course of the previous days.

The Lady Trojans (20-8) swept past a tough Laurel-Concord-Coleridge squad (25-12, 25-22, 25-17) and Boone Central (25-16, 27-25, 25-16) to regain their balance and move closer to the postseason.

“I thought (LCC) was a good team win and we really went in and took care of business,” said Cedar Catholic head coach Denae Buss. “We were aggressive with our servers, set the ball up well and found some open holes.”

The team just refused to let down against Boone Central, Buss said.

“(Against Boone Central) We did a nice job of communicating and aggressive serving. The second set we just compounded a few errors and then dug in to get the win. The start of set three, we had Laney Kathol go down with a rolled ankle and Grace Wortmann did a very nice job stepping in to finish out the game along with the rest of the team mentally stepping up and moving forward.”

Kathol (12 kills), Lexi Eickhoff (seven kills, three blocks), Katy Jones (13 digs) and Meredith McGregor (28 assists) led the way in the win over LCC.

Kathol (10 kills), Eickhoff (six kills), Melayna Mc-Gregor (six kills) and Meredith McGregor (26 assists) had big games against Boone Central.

The Lady Trojans began Mid-States Conference tournament play on Monday against Battle Creek at Pierce and will enter the fray as the No. 2 seed – trailing only Norfolk Catholic, who won an early match between the two.

Senior middle blocker Jozie Becker said the difference between winning and losing lately has been an ability to have “better endurance to finish” and close the deal.

“Our weaknesses get the best of us,” Becker said. “We need to do our work early to make the end easier. We have been working really hard in practice and (against LCC) we just went back to our fundamentals – at the end of the day, that’s what it comes down to.”

Good competition only makes them better, Becker said.

“(Competitive matches make) us work harder and win. We come into every game with the drive and motivation. We try not to play down to any team’s level and up to our level. We know we can do it,” she said.

Becker added she also feels the team has learned recently that it can compete in any match and win, but it needs the right motivation to finish the deal.

Cedar 25 27 25 Boone Central 16 25 16 LCC 12 22 17 Cedar 25 25 25