MIDDLEFIELD—A five-set loss to rival Berkshire in a Division III district championship game last fall didn’t sit well with Cardinal’s volleyball team.
The Huskies finally had their chance to avenge that loss and took full advantage of the opportunity in knocking off the visiting Badgers on Thursday, 3-1.
“I think my girls were confident and didn’t feel the pressure of the game,” Cardinal coach Karisca Chambers said. “Even when we were down at times we knew we had to rally a little harder and make smart plays to close out those tough sets.”
Cardinal improved to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division with a 25-18, 25-23, 15-25, 25-10 win.
“I loved our energy,” Chambers said. “The crowd was amazing and we fed off of that. I liked how we were able to bounce back. That third game, we struggled in that aspect, but overall we didn’t allow not having the lead get in our head.”
Andrea Mack led Cardinal with six blocks. Taylor Soltis posted a team-high 19 digs and Jess Proch and Haley Domen contributed with five kills and 15 assists, respectively.
“Everyone did their part tonight,” Chambers said. “I’m proud of the younger girls for stepping up. This was a low ‘kill night’ for us, but we will work on hitting consistency. I’m super excited about the win and the girls deserve this. We can only go up from here.”
Cardinal did struggle at the service line as the Huskies committed 11 service errors. The Huskies also have to improve their serve receive.
“I would like to cut that in half,” Chambers said. “Our serve receive at times struggled. I thought Berkshire did a nice job at the float serve and at times it caught us off guard. If we eliminate some of our errors, that’s a different volleyball game.”
Berkshire fell to 1-3 overall and 0-1 in league play.
“I think today showed our inexperience and inconsistency,” Berkshire coach Joni Prots said. “I feel like game two could have gone either way and that could have changed things. We are going to just keep building on the good things and I feel like we will get there.”
