Eagles battle with Vikings, clash with Cardinals

ST. JOHN - Hitting the road all of last week, the St. John-Endicott/LaCrosse (SJEL) Eagles split a pair of away matches on Tuesday, Oct. 8, and Thursday, Oct. 10.

The Eagles fell to the Garfield-Palouse Vikings, 3-0, on Tuesday and defeated the Waitsburg Cardinals, 3-0, on Thursday.

Against the Vikings, SJEL junior setter Sophie Anderson opened the match with an ace. Gar-Pal swiftly recovered and tied set one at 2-2 with kills by junior Clare Bowechop and junior Elena Flansburg.

While the hits kept coming from the Vikings, the Eagles kept digging, forcing several volleys before Gar-Pal would gain the point. The Vikings took a large lead and set one ended with three aces by junior Morgan Lentz. Gar-Pal took set one, 25-9.

Set two was a heated battle needing extra points to finish it.

The Eagles again struck first with a kill by senior Kate Hergert, assisted by Anderson. SJEL took a commanding 4-0 lead before Gar-Pal began to control the court and tied the set at 7-7 on a kill by Brantner.

Brantner notched another two aces and Flansburg had a big block kill to give the Vikings a 17-11 lead.

SJEL would not give in, however, and began to take control of the set. An ace by senior Avery Flemming and kills by Vanessa Webb and Chloe Waddel helped the Eagles tie the match at 24-24.

A point was gained for SJEL on a serve by Anderson, but Gar-Pal gained the next three points and the Vikings took set two, 27-25.

To begin set three, the Eagles had to overcome a 5-0 deficit. Aces by Fleming and two front-line kills helped SJEL shorten the gap to two points with SJEL being down 18-16.

The Vikings slowly added to their advantage and won set three, 25-20, and the match, 3-0.

Hergert led the Eagles with five kills, with Fleming adding four. Fleming had a team-high three aces with Anderson notching two. Junior Catalina Torres also led the Eagles with 12 digs in the match and Anderson had 18 assists.

The Eagles went on to defeat the Waitsburg Cardinals, 3-0, on Thursday. Set scores were 25-15, 25-14 and 25-8.

Fleming led the Eagles with eight kills, with Hergert adding seven. Hergert notched nine aces, with Torres and Anderson each getting two. Hergert also had two block kills and Waddell had one.

Torres led the team with eight digs and Anderson had a team-high 21 assists.

Next up for the Eagles was to return home to take on the Colton Wildcats on Tuesday, Oct. 15, after press time. Their next matchup is away at Dayton today, Thursday, Oct. 17.