Cardinals Breeze in State Tourney Opener
The Red Machine cranked it up in their first State Tournament match with a sweep of Kittson County Central at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. All the seniors got to play including the injured Payton Schultz who saw the floor in each set. Scores were 25-12 25-15 25-13. The Bearcats of Kittson County Central had just one lead the entire match 1-0 in the first set. Bethlehem Academy was very efficient, finishing with a .297 hitting percentage for the match and their defense held KCC to a .011 attack percentage. Sophmore Payton Nutter led the way with 14 kills while hitting a blistering .520, Senior Lauren Mathews tallied 7 kills while hitting .400 and Junior Maddie Strodtman collected 5 kills with a .308 hitting percentage. They were our Faribault State Farm Insurance agents Faribault players of the match. Nutter also had 14 assists and Mathews and Strodtman helped put up a block that frustrated the Bearcats. The match took just 63 minutes. The only way I can describe it is workman like. Senior Libero Shanna Matejcek garnered 18 digs and the Cardinals had 7 ace serves led by Mathews and Junior Hannah Robb with 3 each. Kittson County Central was no slouch. They won the Star of the North games this past summer and Cardinal Head Coach Franz Boelter said before the match his team would need their A game to win. They clearly looked focused while dispatching of the Bearcats and will face the Section 2 Champions Martin County West Mavericks in the semi-finals at the X 1pm Friday. The match will be carried on KDHL Radio...920AM beginning about 12:45pm if everything is on time. Martin County West showed an incredible tenacity in coming back from a 24-18 deficit to win the fourth set 26-24 over Ada-Borup in their Tournament opener. The Mavericks dropped the first set 25-14 before reeling off 25-18 25-14 and 26-24 win to advance to the semis. BA was able to use their height advantage in the Quarterfinals, but Martin County West put up a very good block against Ada Borup while collecting 16 blocks. 5'9 Senior Hailey Leiding has very good timing at the net and had 11 block assists for the Mavericks rs and two solo blocks. Bethlehem Academy is gunning for their 3 state championship in the past four years.