MELLETTE – The Northwestern Wildcats may be young, but they still have players with big-match experience. And when things got a bit dicey Tuesday night, those individuals rose to the challenge.
Third-rated Class B Northwestern won a tight second set to help fuel a 19-25, 25-20, 25-21, 25-13 non-conference volleyball win over Aberdeen Roncalli.
After a rough opening set, the scored was tied at 19-19 in the second set before the Wildcats scored six of the final seven points to level the match and totally grab the momentum for the rest of the evening.
“I was really pleased with the way our kids stepped up. They’re all really young. We knew tonight would be interesting,” said Northwestern coach Nora Groft, whose squad does not have a senior this season. “I thought they really played well when it started to matter. They were nervous. A lot of them hadn’t been out on the varsity court before. We’ve got a lot of brand new faces playing together, so I thought that they started to gel at the end of that second set.”
During that surge it was players like Ashley Haven and Ella Boekelheide who made their presence felt. Both have state tournament experience and made sure the Wildcats did not fall behind by two sets.
“Those other kids have some experience, but it’s never been ‘on them.’ They’ve never had to get the big kill. They’ve never had to score the ace or play the ball up,” Groft said. “They’ve always had a smaller role, so we’re just kind of growing into our new roles.”
Haven knows she will have to step up and did exactly that, finishing the contest with a match-leading 21 kills, finding open spots in the Roncalli defense with precision angles.
“We lost our leadership from last year,” Haven said. “I do feel like I need to step up and I stepped up.”
The Cavaliers controlled the opening set and appeared to be on the verge of grabbing a commanding two-set lead. However, once Roncalli lost the second set, things were never the same after that.
“We just kind of got off kilter a little bit,” said Roncalli coach Mandy Smid, “maybe chasing after a few rather of being in control of a few balls.”
Soon, Northwestern became more aggressive, while the Cavaliers were back on their heels.
“I thought it was almost a look of like the wind being knocked out of our sails a little bit,” Smid said.
Once the Wildcats won the second set, they set the tone the rest of the match, opening up a 13-7 lead in the third set and a 12-3 advantage in the fourth set. It proved to be a much different finish than the start.
“Since it’s our first game and we’re so young, we just had those jitters,” Haven said of the shaky first set. “Once we got those out, when we were comfortable, we just took control and just controlled the game.”
Ana Ratigan and Payton Grandpre each had seven kills for the Wildcats. Boekelheide finished with 29 assists and 23 digs.
Groft said her team gained some confidence facing a quality opponent to start the season.
“Roncalli has got a really solid team. They’ve got good fundamentals,” Groft said. “I just really thought our kids got some confidence tonight just being out on the floor, like hey, I can do this.”
Ava Hanson had nine kills and McKenna O’Keefe seven for the Cavaliers, who host Redfield on Thursday at Roncalli Gym.
Despite suffering a setback, Smid said there was plenty of positives to take away from the season-opening match.
“I think that overall, obviously we would have loved to have the win, but you leave tonight looking at it and saying Northwestern has been and will be a good program,” Smid said, “a great test for us, and also a match that we were a few points on that could have gone either way here or there.”
Serving: Aberdeen Roncalli 50-62 8 aces (Faith Danielson 13-14 2 aces, Jaidyn Feickert 9-11 2 aces); Northwestern 80-90 3 aces (Ella Boekelheide 14-16 2 aces, Taylor Vetter 13-15 1 ace).
Hitting: Aberdeen Roncalli 108-129 22 kills (Ava Hanson 27-32 9 kills, McKenna O’Keefe 19-24 7 kills); Northwestern 129-147 43 kills (Ashley Haven 47-49 21 kills, Ana Ratigan 15-18 7 kills, Payton Grandpre 24-30 7 kills).
Setting: Aberdeen Roncalli 129-131 17 assists (Danielson 56-58 12 assists, Maddie Huber 51-52 5 assists); Northwestern 133-136 39 assists (Boekelheide 92-94 29 assists, Layla Ortmeier 12-13 6 assists).
Digs: Aberdeen Roncalli 92 (Camryn Bain 27, O’Keefe 18); Northwestern 86 (Boekelheide 23, Tara Blachford 14, Grandpre 12).
Blocks: Aberdeen Roncalli 1 solo 2 assists (Huber 1 solo, Hanson 1 assist, Rylee Voeller 1 assist); Northwestern 10 assists (Haven 4, Grandpre 3).
Records: Aberdeen Roncalli 0-1; Northwestern 1-0.
