Cards sweep Panthers

NEW BREMEN - Despite falling behind in all three sets, New Bremen found a way to rally and sweep Parkway 25-22, 25-17, 26-24 Thursday at The Nest.

Parkway's Kelsey Nichols served up the game's first six points as the Panthers jumped out to a 10-1 lead. The Cardinals chipped away, and eventually took their first lead of the set, 22-21, on an ace by Elli Roetgerman.

New Bremen senior Josie Reinhart sealed the comeback with her ninth kill of the opening set.

"We struggled tonight in every aspect of our game," New Bremen coach Diana Kramer said. We struggled from the service line. We struggled passing. We struggled making the right decisions setting. We struggled attacking. With that said, we also pulled together as a team and found a way to make each other better."

The Panthers controlled the action early in the second set as well. New Bremen took its first lead at 14-13, and led 17-16 and finished the set on a 9-1 run.

Set three was never separated by more than two points in either direction. Gabrielle Stober's kill put the Panthers up 24-22 late. But the Cards fought off two set points, and ended on a 4-0 run with another Reinhart kill to close out the night. Reinhart finished with a career-high 22 kills.

"Josie Reinhart had a phenomenal night tonight. She literally put the team on her back and said, 'we're not going to lose this game,'" Kramer said. " I'm really proud of how her senior leadership kicked in and she took control."

The top ranked and defending State Champion Cardinals improve to 14-0, and 5-0 in the Midwest Athletic Conference.

"Every day we find ways to get better and we learn lessons," Kramer said. "Tonight was clearly not our game, but we still found our way. Give Parkway a lot of credit because they did a lot of things to put some pressure on us."

The Panthers, now 1-4 in the MAC and 7-6 overall were led by Stober and Faith Jacobs with seven kills each. Parkway travels to Lima Central Catholic Tuesday and will host New Knoxville next Thursday.

For the Cardinals, Ellie Tangeman added seven kills, Claire Pape 33 assists and Diana Heitkamp 17 digs.

New Bremen will host Fort Loramie Saturday in a rematch of last year's state finals. The Cardinals travel to Versailles next Thursday and will wrap up their MAC season playing Marion Local, New Knoxville and Fort Recovery in a span of seven days. The three teams have a combined record of 34-3 and are ranked second, fourth and ninth respectively in the state in D-IV.

"We played that same MAC gauntlet at the end of the season last year to go into the tournament and that's what you want," Kramer said. "You want to find ways to make yourself better at the end of the season, and the only way you can do that is to play the best."