OMAHA, Neb. – It took more than two hours and five match points, but the College of Saint Mary showed some toughness to notch its first conference volleyball win on Saturday.
The Flames outlasted Hastings 25-20, 23-25, 25-21, 30-28 in an evenly matched Great Plains Athletic Conference encounter.
“I’m really proud that we found a way to finish that and come back and get that done,” CSM Coach Rick Pruett said. “We were running out of gas. That was one of those games where four sets felt like it took 10 hours because everything was a long rally. We had to dig deep and find that, and we did.”
Leading two sets to one, it appeared the Flames (10-6 overall, 1-2 GPAC) might need a fifth to find the win column, as they trailed 23-18 and 24-21 in the fourth set. But they fought off three set points to pull in front 25-24 and earn their first match point after Grace Werner‘s kill.
However, CSM couldn’t convert it, or its next three match points. Finally, at 28-all, Azaria Green slammed a kill for a fifth match point, and Hastings’ attack sailed inches long, ending the two-hour, three-minute marathon. The Broncos dropped to 7-3 and 1-1.
The Flames appeared to be on the brink of a two-sets-to-none lead, after winning the opener and holding leads of 8-0 and 14-5 in the second. But the Broncos put together a fierce comeback to even the match.
Pruett liked the way his team recovered from the second-set struggles.
“We handled it better than we’ve done before,” he said. “It’s so nice to get a conference win at home. We needed that win. That was a big win for us, just for our mentality and for where we are.”
Madisyn Havermann paced the attack with 17 kills while hitting .239, along with 13 digs. She also earned praise from Pruett for her cover defense at the net. Werner and Green added 11 kills each, while Morgan Ramsey contributed nine and Liz Henrichson seven.
Miranda Ring handed out 27 assists and Kaitlyn Busby had 21. Elen Pruett had 19 digs and was joined in double figures by Krissy Radicia (17), Caitlin McCormack (14) and Havermann.
CSM returns to action with conference matches Sept. 18 at Doane and Sept. 21 at Mount Marty.
“We have an opportunity to hopefully run off some wins and get us on the positive side of the conference,” Pruett said.
*CSM’s junior varsity squad beat Hastings 2-0 by scores of 26-24, 28-26.
