Luverne junior setter Lyndsie Johnson hits the floor to keep a ball in play during Tuesday's homecoming match against Russell-Tyler-Ruthton. Johnson recorded 20 set assists during a 3-1 victory.
By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne volleyball team went 1-1 while playing a pair of home games since last Thursday.
Windom swept Luverne in a Southwest Conference tilt Thursday before the Cardinals posted a four-game win over Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in their homecoming match Tuesday.
Luverne, 9-7-1 overall, plays in Worthington tonight and Brandon, S.D., Tuesday. The Cards host Martin County West Monday.
Luverne 3, R-T-R 1
The Cardinals turned their annual homecoming match into a reason to celebrate when they downed the Knights in a four-game match Tuesday.
The teams split a pair of tightly-contested games to start the match, but Luverne outscored R-T-R 30-16 in the final two games to win in four.
"It was a great homecoming win," said Cardinal coach Mary Jo Graphenteen. "The crowd was great, and there was some exciting play. You like to win matches like this one."
Luverne's ability to forget about what happened in Game 2 of the match played a key part in the victory.
The Cards took a 5-0 lead with two kills from Stephanie Morgan and two service points and an ace serve by Emily Oksness, and led 10-2 after Lyndise Johnson served a pair of points as the game progressed.
It looked like the Cards were on the verge of taking a 2-0 lead in games when Morgan came up with a block to make it a 14-8 difference, but the roof caved in on the hosts after that as R-T-R went on an 8-0 run to steal a 16-14 win.
After falling behind 4-2 early in Game 3, LHS used two points and an ace serve by Morgan, a point from Tara Boomgaarden and kills from Oksness and Rashel Boeve to gain an 8-4 cushion.
The score was 10-6 when Boeve recorded three kills and Johnson and Cassi Pap served points to give the Cards a 15-6 victory and a 2-1 lead.
Both teams had seven-point runs early in the fourth game, but the Cards moved in front 13-7 with a point and an ace serve by Johnson, a tip by Boomgaarden and two kills and a point from Morgan.
R-T-R closed the gap to three points (13-10) before Morgan came up with a block and a kill to clinch a 15-10 win for the Cards.
Luverne led 8-4 in Game 1 before the Knights went on a 7-1 run to take an 11-9 edge.
Two points from Morgan and a point and an ace serve by Pap put the Cards in front 13-11, and they won 15-13 when Morgan came up with the game-winning tip.
Morgan and Boeve led the Cards with 15 and 13 kills respectively. Johnson charted 20 set assists.
Johnson (19 of 21 with 13 points), Boomgaarden (18 of 20 with 11 points) and Pap (16 of 17 with 10 points) led the Cards in serving. Boomgaarden was credited with doing an outstanding job in the serve receive area by coach Graphenteen.
Windom 3, Luverne 0
The Cardinals slipped to 0-3 in Southwest Conference play when they dropped a three-game tilt to a talented Eagles' squad in Luverne Thursday.
According to LHS coach Graphenteen, serving problems on the part of the Cardinals proved to be their undoing against Windom.
"I know it's beginning to sound like a broken record, but we are really struggling at the service line. We had 12 service errors, which is way too many in a three-game match. We just couldn't get any runs going because of the missed serves. Our serving forced us to play defense most of the night," she said.
Mistakes at the line helped the Eagles record 15-4 wins in the first two games of the match.
Luverne did play better in Game 3, but it wasnÕt enough to keep Windom from ending the match with a 15-12 win.
"Windom is an experienced team and it showed," Graphenteen said. "They did have a couple of sophomores playing, but a majority of their players were seniors, and their experience showed."
Boomgaarden, who had five kills for LHS, led the Cards at the line by completing nine of 10 serves and scoring five points. Oksness was 10 of 13 at the line.
Stephanie Morgan recorded a team-high six kills for the Cards. Boeve and Pap had four kills each, while Johnson contributed eight set assists to the cause.