Cardinal holds off rival Van Buren?s big rally

KEOSAUQUA ? Things were going about as well as they could for the Cardinal volleyball team Thursday night at Van Buren, but a few minutes later, they were going about as bad as they could.

The Comets made it look easy by taking a 2-0 match lead, but the Warriors stormed back to make it a fierce contest before Cardinal eeked out a 25-24, 25-8, 26-28, 26-24 victory.

The game four victory avoided a game five and also shut down a Van Buren comeback attempt it had completed just two days earlier. After trailing the match 2-0 Tuesday vs. Danville, the Warriors rallied in the final three games to steal a win.

?We didn?t want to go five,? said Cardinal head coach Jerald Harter. ?Van Buren just won the last three to take a match the other night. If we go to the fifth game, they have all the momentum and we start to doubt ourselves.?

Cardinal smoked Van Buren with convincing wins in game one and two, but that?s when the match took a competitive turn.

?If we play like we did in that second game, I?ll put our team up against anybody around,? Harter said. ?It was the best game we?ve played all year, but volleyball is like that, and a team can be like Jekyll and Hyde. And this team can definitely be Jekyll and Hyde.?

The Warriors jumped out to an 8-1 lead in the third set before Cardinal started scratching and clawing its way back. Hannah Haynes gave Van Buren a 22-19 lead that forced a Cardinal timeout to set up the late-game dramatics.

Cardinal had come within one point at five different times in the match before finally tying the score with game point on the line. Andrea Kayser put down two straight kills to knot the score 24 all. Sam Nickel gave the Comets a match point with a kill to make the score 26-25, but Van Buren wasn?t quite ready to go home.

Makenzie Zeitler started a run that gave the Warriors three of the next four points to win them the game and make the match 2-1.

?We just weren?t adjusting to what they were doing,? Harter added. ?Every time the ball hit the floor, the one person that was supposed to be in that spot just wasn?t there.?

Van Buren once again jumped out to an early lead in game four scoring eight of the first 10 points, but this time, Cardinal didn?t wait as long to tie the score. The Comets achieved their first tie at 16-16 and the two squads were dead-locked the rest of the way.

Another late-game kill from Nickel evened the score at 23, Van Buren jumped ahead 24-23, but two straight Warrior errors set up Kayser?s match-clinching ace.

Kayser finished with a game-high 10 aces on the evening to go along with nine kills. Nickel had four blocks and also, along with Chelsea Aschenbrenner, nine kills to lead the Comets with help from Courtney Smith?s 19 assists.

Van Buren suffers another tough SEISC-south division loss after digging an early hole it couldn?t quite get out of.

Jordan Bullups had 17 assists and 27 digs to pace the Warriors while Haynes led the way at the net with nine kills and five solo blocks. Jessica Saunders had six kills and 23 digs while Zeitler tallied four kills and and 18 digs defensively.

Cardinal receives a much-needed conference victory and will return home to take on West Burlington next Tuesday. Van Buren will be back at home Monday for a game against lowly Harmony before playing again Tuesday on the road against Central Lee.