Defensively, Cardinal’s volleyball team rose to the challenge of playing at Villa Angela-St. Joseph. Offensively, the Huskies never gained the momentum and fell to the Vikings, 3-1.
Cardinal, which dropped to 16-6 overall, won the first set 25-18 then dropped the next three, 19-25, 22-25, 22-25.
“Our offense, we never gained momentum,” said Cardinal coach Lisa Shirkey. “We had a ton of digs tonight. We were digging them up left and right. They were giving us everything they had. Our offense just never seemed to get momentum going. We’d get it but we wouldn’t keep it and it’s a game of momentum.”
The Huskies started off strong with consistent serving and powerful play at the net to win the first set.
That all changed in the final three games as VASJ’s hitters kept the Huskies off balance.
“They were making some errors and we had some strong serving in the first one. They were definitely out of synch that first game,” Shirkey said. “The second one, we had some positioning issues on defense with our blockers and we made some errors that way; some hitting errors and serving errors.”
The two teams played nearly even in the final two sets but the Vikings did enough to pull out the win.
“The last two sets were anyone’s game,” Shirkey said. “It was back and forth. It was a well-played match overall, it just came down to whoever makes less mistakes.”
Led by Kaitlin Bean with 37, the Huskies recorded a total of 115 digs. Alyssa Shirkey and Megan Zeigler both had 20, Caitlyn Lechene had 21 and Maddie Bean contributed with 13.
Kaitlin Bean had eight kills, Shirkey added 12 kills and three blocks, Lechene posted eight kills and five blocks and Maddie Bean had 12 service points and 27 assists, giving her 523 on the year.
The Huskies return to action on Thursday when they travel to LaBrae High School for a sectional final against the winner of the Pymatuning Valley-Grand Valley sectional semifinal.
