| By ROBB HEMMELGARN Standard Correspondent
 
 
  MINSTER 
                  — For the second night in succession, the Minster Lady 
                  Wildcats took to the volleyball court and once again remained 
                  unbeaten as the smoke cleared. Their latest victim, the St. Marys Roughriders, gave the Orange 
                  and Black a hard-fought battle, but eventually succumbed in 
                  two games, 15-8, 15-11.
 “I’ll tell you what, I’m going to give St. 
                  Marys a lot of credit for the way they played tonight,” 
                  remarked Minster coach Rick Carter. “They’re a scrappy 
                  team. They aren’t real big in size, but they played excellent 
                  defense and got some good hits and were able to catch us off 
                  balance at times.”
 In the opening contest, the home team jumped out to the quick 
                  5-0 lead, however, a short time later the Roughriders closed 
                  the gap to two points at 5-3. The teams traded service points 
                  and Krissy Haines’ jump serve ace pulled her team to within 
                  a point at 6-5.
 The Wildcats were able to respond with another pair of service 
                  points from sophomore Laura Morsey to take command 8-5, but 
                  the Roughriders‚ just wouldn’t say die. Jill Anderson 
                  provided the serving as her team knotted the contest at eight 
                  points by taking advantage of several Minster defensive lapses.
 Robyn Hoying bumped over a Roughrider serve to give possession 
                  back to the home team, and the senior middle hitter served up 
                  the game’s next seven points, giving her team the 15-8 
                  victory in game one.
 “They had a couple of girls jump serve tonight and they 
                  were successful at picking up a few points from those,” 
                  said Carter. “We haven’t seen that at all this year 
                  and it caught us out of position a few times, but we managed 
                  to recover nicely and Robyn provided some excellent serving 
                  at the end of the game. That’s really something we like 
                  to see out of her because it means other girls are coming up 
                  with big hits when she’s back there for so long.”
 St. Marys drew first blood in the second game, but the Wildcats 
                  immediately answered with three straight points to pull ahead, 
                  3-1. Emily Matthews served two straight points for the visitors 
                  and the contest was knotted at three points apiece before Minster 
                  answered with another couple of scores from the serving of Morsey.
 The Wildcats were in command 5-3, and six sideouts later added 
                  another point to take charge, 6-3. St. Marys answered with another 
                  tandem of points to cut the Wildcat lead to one point, and from 
                  there it was a seesaw battle. Haines tied the game at eight 
                  points with a pair of jump serves which fell in front of Wildcat 
                  freshman Danae Spieles and the Blue and Gold would jump ahead 
                  by as many as two points at 10-8 before Minster would rally.
 
  The 
                  Wildcats tied the contest at 10-10 following a pair of serves 
                  by Spieles. The Roughriders picked up another point to take 
                  the 11-10 lead, but from there it was all Minster as the home 
                  team responded with five straight points to close the match 
                  with the hard-earned 15-11 win. “I though overall we played very competitive tonight,” 
                  explained St. Marys Coach Monica Vanderhorst. “We tied 
                  it at eight points in the first game and it was knotted at 11 
                  points in the second game. The key is to stay competitive with 
                  the teams that we play as we continue to build more confidence.”
 With the win, the Wildcats keep their record unblemished at 
                  8-0 on the season, while St. Marys drops to 3-5 on the young 
                  campaign. The Wildcats will host the Delphos St. John’s 
                  Blue Jays tomorrow night in a league contest, while the Roughriders 
                  will play host to the undefeated Ottawa Glandorf Titans in a 
                  home tilt.
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