Wildcats sweep Panthers

MINSTER - A couple of weeks ago, the Minster Wildcats were 0-5 in the Midwest Athletic Conference and in desperate need of a jolt to finish off the second half of the 2014 campaign.

With the volleyball tournament looming a little over a week away, the Wildcats are peaking just when they need to. Last evening they posted a three-game victory over the Parkway Panthers, 25-17, 25-12, 25-21 to notch their seventh victory in a row as well as their third MAC triumph in the past two weeks.

"We have been playing pretty solid the last few matches and I told the girls that how we play right now will set us up for the rest of the season and into tournament," Minster head coach Cami Garman said. "We have Marion Local here on Thursday and tournament right after that, so playing like we are right now is great timing and it is something we need to continue to improve upon."

The opening set was back and forth in the early going before senior Cassie Jutte dished up three straight to give her team a 14-10 cushion. The Panthers stormed back and eventually knotted the game at 15 points, but the Orange and Black exploded from there for ten of the game's next 12 points to secure the 25-17 victory.

"We made a lot of mistakes in the beginning of game one, but then we stared to communicate better together as a team," Garman said. "Our offense also got some consistency behind them and we managed to get some one-on-one blocks which allowed us to be successful in the first and second attacks."

In similar fashion to their opening game, the Panthers and Wildcats traded punches at the onset of game two before a Parkway defensive error gave the home team an 8-7 lead and they never bothered looking back. Sophomore Jordyn Heitbrink calmly unleashed eight straight points, while relentless hitting at the net by Bridget McGowan and Erica Oldiges helped push their team's lead to 16-8 by the time Heitbrink's rotation ended. Parkway never recovered from that point. Parkway continued to be plagued by several hitting errors, which allowed the Wildcats coasted to the 25-12 victory.

"Game two opened and we continued to focus on the good things we were doing in the first game," Garman said. "We served aggressive and got a lot of free balls and were able to attach from there to come away with the win."

With her team's back against the wall in game three, Parkway's Whitney Rollins served the Panthers out to a 5-0 edge only to have Minster tie the set at 6-6. From there the fight was on. Both teams continued to answer one another on the scoreboard with seven ties over the course of the next few minutes.

The Panthers regained control at 18-17 thanks to a slam by senior Madison Roehm, but Minster soon tied the score again when Oldiges found an open seam in the Panther defense with another of her game-high 14 kills. Minster soon took back control at 20-18 with an ace by Hannah Schmitmeyer and a slam from Heitbrink. Although Parkway pulled to within a point at 20-19, Minster soon responded and never relinquished more than a two-point advantage before eventually winning the decisive third game, 25-21.

"It seems to be an ongoing thing with us in our matches against solid teams. Ball handling, passing the ball well, and hitting are a few things with which we are struggling," remarked Parkway head coach Jeff Marbaugh. "We have times where we seem to do good things and then there are times where we just need to concentrate better. I thought there was a little bit more of a drive with a better mindset in game three tonight, but it just wasn't enough and we lost to a good team."

Both teams wrap up the regular season on Thursday. Minster (14-7, 3-5 MAC) hosts the Marion Local Flyers on Senior Night and Parkway (11-10, 2-6 MAC) hosts New Bremen.