Cardinals Miss Districts After DeSales Tiebreaker Loss

DAYTON – The Lady Cardinals volleyball team lost their chance to compete as the #3 seed in the District 7/9 tournament when they dropped a tiebreaker match against DeSales on Mon., Nov. 2, in Dayton. Waitsburg made the Irish work for their win, taking the match to a full five sets, but ultimately lost 24-26, 18-25, 26-24, 25-22, and 13-15.

“Overall, we played really well and the girls fought hard to come back after being down two sets, to push it to five. During the fifth set we were down 9-14 and they continued to play hard to come back and make it really close,” Cardinal Coach Angie Potts said.

“Kelsey Alleman did a great job of filling in to serve during the last three sets for Tayler Jones who struggled with her serving but played great on defense and was consistent on offense. Bailey Adams and Caitlin Mohney both did a good job of digging the outside hitters and staying at the angle we worked on. They were also solid in the front row.

“Caitlyn Jones ran down a lot of balls on the back line and Devon Harshman and Anissa Holmberg worked hard in the middle. Devon led with 11 kills and Anissa had a key block in the fifth set to get our momentum going. Ariel had a huge third set by serving out the game when we were down 20-24 to lead us to a 26-24 win in that set. Jade Alleman subbed in during the last few points of the fifth set when we needed to make a change and played like she had been on the court all night,” Potts said.

“It’s hard to see the season end for this team because they were ready to play this weekend and really playing well at the end of the season which is when a coach wants to see everything coming together for a team. They have some of the best attitudes and a team-first mentality that is rare among a full team of kids.

“I expect that our returning girls will carry this standard on to next year and push themselves to reach that District 7/9 tournament and beyond,” Potts added.