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St. Marys' Syerra Greber takes a shot as Minster's Kayla Lamm (6) and Alayna Prenger (8) go up to block at Wildcat Gymnasium on Tuesday.
MINSTER - After Minster coasted to wins of 25-19 and 25-14 in the first two sets on Tuesday's volleyball match with St. Marys, some may have thought that a quick outing was in the cards for the Wildcats.
Instead, the Roughriders roared back to win the next two sets 25-18 and 25-21 to force a fifth set. Minster dominated the deciding set 15-6 at Wildcat Gymnasium.
"We always tell the girls that they have to finish in the end, no matter how it starts," said Minster coach Chelsea McGhee. "We are working on that daily and the girls know that we don't want to peak right now. We want to peak later on, but tonight was a great battle for us to come away with the win."
The opening set was tight throughout, with eight ties and several lead changes before a kill by Minster senior Lydia Mescher gave her team its biggest cushion of the game at 23-18. Mescher followed up with a kill and an ace to give the Wildcats the 25-19 victory in set one.
St. Marys' Reghan Puthoff takes a shot as Minster's Lydia Mescher defends.
A tip from senior Alayna Prenger found an open hole in the St. Marys defense to give the Orange and Black a 2-1 lead in set two, and the home team never looked back. The Wildcats methodically extended their advantage the rest of the way, powered by a strong service rotation by senior Lilly Barhorst and solid hitting from junior Keri Heckman to eventually seal the 25-14 triumph.
"In sets one and two, we really kept our foot on the gas and continued to build momentum," said McGhee. "I felt we did a good job in the early-going of not letting imperfections turn into errors and opponent-points, and that was very important."
With its back against the wall, St. Marys refused to back down and grabbed the momentum by the horns midway through the third set. Spot-on serving from senior Ashlie Nuss and several defensive errors by Minster gave the Roughriders a 16-9 advantage, but the Findlay-bound Barhorst took charge a few moments later with a couple of monster slams between the St. Marys defenders, and a service point from the Barhorst knotted the game at 18.
Minster's Lilly Barhorst hits a shot against St. Marys.
The Roughriders, though, responded with seven straight from sophomore Elle Craft behind the server's line and took set three 25-18.
"We got off to a slow start, but I was very proud of how the girls didn't just pack it in and they put up a fight in sets three and four," St. Marys coach Caley Yoder said. "We made some good adjustments and took advantage of what Minster gave us, and I felt we were really able to capitalize. In the first two sets, we were playing as six individuals and knew we had to focus on playing as one team."
The two squads teetered back and forth in set four before Craft served up another solid round to break an 18-all tie and give St. Marys a 21-19 edge, which it never relinquished.
The Wildcats captured the quick lead in the deciding set and calmly opened things up throughout, eventually rolling to the victory which pushed them to 6-4 on the season.
Barhorst led Minster with 19 kills, while Lamm added 14 and Megan Fortman 11. Brynn Clark paced the Roughriders with 12 kills.
Both teams are in conference play on Thursday. Minster hosts St. Henry in MAC play and St. Marys (8-6) hosts Ottawa-Glandorf in an attempt to improve to 4-0 on the year in the WBL.
