Aberdeen Roncalli landed the first blow, but Redfield made the Cavaliers go four rounds Thursday evening in a hard-fought Northeast Conference volleyball contest that ultimately ended with a 3-1 (25-12, 30-28, 22-25, 25-21) Cavalier victory at Roncalli Gym. 

Roncalli led early and often in a decisive opening set, recording six service aces amidst a host of offensive points that seemingly hinted at what could be a dominant match victory.

The Pheasants, however, would not be so easily dismissed.

Redfield bullied its way to a 21-16 lead in the second set, forcing the Cavaliers to mount a late rally to stay in control of the match. Three straight kills sparked a 6-1 Roncalli run to tie the set at 22-all, setting up what proved to be a prolonged see-saw end to the stanza.

“Redfield came out strong and they came out ready to play,” said Roncalli coach Leesa Ware. “They have a lot of good girls, and just a well-rounded team. I was very impressed with how they played. They never gave up. It was hard for us to find the holes.”

After staving off four set points – including one at 28-27 – Roncalli put together one final run capped by a resounding solo block from setter Elyana Roach to end the set.

“Before, I had made a little mistake so I was all fired up,” Roach said. “I really wanted that block. With the mistakes I made I knew I needed to do something for my team, so I went up there and had confidence in myself and told myself I can do it. When I got the block, I shocked myself a little bit, but it felt really good at the end.”

“I was thinking to myself, the score was 26-26 and I was thinking oh, boy,” Ware said. “Either this is game over or these girls are going to dig deep. And they dug deep … and finished the rally. That’s all I can hope for.”

Now down two sets to none and on the short end of an energy-sapping rally, the Pheasants could have folded.

But they didn’t.

Redfield doled out four kills and a block in an early 8-3 lead in the third set, putting the host Cavaliers back on their heels.

Roncalli senior Rylee Voeller said that mid-match lull highlighted the importance of winning the long rally in the second set and of maintaining that energy going forward.

“It’s hard,” Voeller said. “It was tiring for sure, but the biggest thing was to not hang our heads over little mistakes. One mistake, who cares, move on to the next (play). Just got to keep rolling.”

The Cavaliers turned the tide back in their favor in the fourth, scratching out an early lead and fending off the Pheasants late to seal the win. Roach and freshman teammate Grace Cogley closed out the match with a double block.

“We knew we were capable of doing better,” Voeller said of the team’s message to each other following that third-set loss. “We were really down on ourselves, we weren’t talking. Again, that energy needed to be there, and it wasn’t that third set. We were down on each other and down on ourselves, and it showed in that third set.”

“When we start losing energy and momentum, you can see it on the court,” Ware said. “There’s more errors, it just doesn’t seem like we do as well, we don’t move our feet. But when we have that energy – and I think it picked back up greatly in that fourth set – that’s when they came rallying back and were able to close it out.”

Voeller finished her night with 18 kills, three service aces and a dozen digs, while Roach notched 31 assists, 13 digs and three blocks.

Cambry Feickert also led a solid night at the service line for the Cavaliers, finishing with four aces amongst Roncalli’s 14 total.

Redfield was led by Charli Jungwirth’s nine kills. Hayden Gall added eight kills and 14 assists, while Layla Hardie finished with 12 assists and 12 digs for the Pheasants.

Roncalli is set to host Miller on Tuesday, while Redfield is also at home that evening against Hitchcock-Tulare.

Serving: Redfield 76-81 (Kinley Smith 19-19, Ceci Suchor 15-15); Aberdeen Roncalli 78-88 14 aces (Cambry Feickert 12-14 4 aces, Rylee Voeller 9-12 3 aces, Grace Cogley 15-17 3 aces).

Hitting: Redfield 94-134 33 kills (Charli Jungwirth 29-32 9 kills, Hayden Gall 15-18 8 kills); Aberdeen Roncalli 150-177 41 kills (Voeller 27-35 18 kills, Gabby Thomas 18-23 10 kills, Jillian Ellwein 27-33 6 kills).

Setting: Redfield 77-92 26 assists (Gall 47-51 14 assists, Layla Hardie 30-41 12 assists); Aberdeen Roncalli 153-153 33 assists (Elyana Roach 99-99 31 assists).

Digs: Redfield 67 (Katryn Evans 18, Hardie 12); Aberdeen Roncalli 84 (Feickert 36, Voeller 12, Roach 13).

Blocks: Redfield 1 solo 9 assists (Gall 4 assists); Aberdeen Roncalli (Cogley 1 solo 3 assists, Roach 1 solo 2 assists, Thomas 1 assist).

Records: Redfield 1-1; Aberdeen Roncalli 1-1.