ELDON — Five years, to the day, they were finally able to break free of what seemed to be a curse.
Monday night Cardinal’s volleyball team opened up the postseason with something they haven’t done since Oct. 16, 2018. Win their first round game.
While the Cardinals were able to break their five-year long first round winless streak, the 3-0 sweep over Central Decatur was anything but easy.
“We hadn’t won a first round regional match in a long time,” Cardinal head volleyball coach Candice Major said after the win. “This win just shows that confidence in yourself can go a really long way. We know that we are a strong team, so it is nice for the girls to be able to feel what we’ve been teaching them.”
The second set of the match proved just how difficult things in volleyball can be. It also proved just how much confidence in yourself can carry a team.
After the Comets were able to start the set on a 5-2 advantage, Central Decatur, made a comeback. They eventually tied the set and then took a 7-6 advantage. Major called a timeout to regroup her team, but instead, the timeout seemed to propel Central Decatur into the lead.
The Cardinals went on a five-point service run that was only briefly interrupted by a sideout point by Cardinal. Central Decatur was able to secure the serve again and promptly went up 16-7. The Comets, in somewhat of a panic used their second timeout to calm the girls.
After a quick kill by the Comets, things started to get back on track.
Now it was Cardinal’s turn to go on a long service run. For 14 of the next 16 points Cardinal was able to add up the score on their side of the scoreboard.
During this time the Comets both created their own luck, through their ability to read the floor.
“A strong suit of our team is the girls ability to read the court,” Major said. “It helps because our team is in the setup to have a good offense through the use of hard hits and hard swings. Everything just seemed to fall into place perfectly.”
Two of the Comet members that helped Cardinal get out of the deficit in the second set were Emarie Finch and Kolbi Saner. It seemed that when one of those two had a chance to kill a ball, they didn’t waste it.
Add in the surgeon-like precision shots of Emma Becker and it was easy for the Comets to erase the deficit they were in.
The Comets tied the second set up at 20, but didn’t stop there. They took the lead when Central Decatur powered a ball out of bounds. Then they eventually jumped ahead 22-20 before their run finally came to a close.
It didn’t stop for long.
Central Decatur scored their 21st and final point of the second set after Cardinal blocked a ball out of bounds. The Cardinals though sent the next serve almost into the crowd.
From there the Cardinals were able to close out the second set with a 25-21 win to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
That momentum from the comeback was all the Comets needed to break their five-year long regional tournament drought.
“In past matches we would have moments in a match where we dropped our shoulders and just get caught in a serve receive cycle,” Major said. “For a glimpse we saw the shoulders drop on our team, but we were able to self correct and come back to win the set.”
Momentum was clearly on the side of the Comets after the second set win. The only time they trailed in the third set was the very first point. From there the Comets charged through the set, holding off a late surge by Central Decatur to win 25-20 and extend their season by at least one game.
Finch was able to lead the Comets with 10 kills. Saner added eight kills in the match. Becker finished with six total kills.
Emily Ward and Megan Ward each had 12 assists each. Becker added another assist.
Brinlee Ostrander led the Comets with 15 total digs. During the first set Ostrander was able to surpass the 500 career dig mark.
Addison Adam added 11 digs. Becker finished with nine. Megan Ward had five.
Finch led the team with three total blocks, two of them were solo. Becker and Emily Ward both had one block each.
Ostrander finished the match with five aces. Adam added two aces.
The Comets (8-17) will now face 13th-ranked West Burlington (36-5) in the second round of the Class 2A, Region 8 tournament. First serve is set for Wednesday night at 7 p.m.