Luverne senior Emily Oksness fields a serve during Tuesday's home volleyball match against Lincoln HI.
By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne volleyball team remained above the .500 mark for the season by splitting a pair of matches since last Thursday.
The Cardinals slipped to 0-2 in Southwest Conference play with a three-game loss in Jackson Thursday, but they bounced back to sweep a three-game home match from Lincoln HI Tuesday.
Luverne, 8-6-1 overall, hosts Windom tonight and Russell-Tyler-Ruthton Tuesday.
Luverne 3, LH 0
The Cardinals turned in one of their strongest showings of the season when they swept the Rebels in three games Tuesday in Luverne.
Luverne rallied from early deficits to take the first two games of the match before rolling to a convincing victory in the finale.
By outscoring LH 45-20 in the three-game tilt, Luverne left little doubt which team deserved to win at night's end.
"I thought we were the better team, and we did a good job of playing like it," said Cardinal coach Mary Jo Graphenteen. "I think we're on the brink of being a team that is ready to take a step up to the next level. All we ever wanted was to be competitive and have at least a chance to win every game. If we continue to improve, I think we have a chance to be in a lot of games, and no one should overlook us."
The Cards showed they could rally during the first two games of Tuesday's tilt.
LH led 7-4 in Game 1 before Luverne went on an 11-0 run to clinch a 15-7 win.
Stephanie Morgan served a seven-point run featuring three aces and a kill by Rashel Boeve to put the Cards in front 11-7. Tara Boomgaarden then served a four-point run featuring one ace and one kill each from Boeve and Pap to put the game away.
The Rebels led 6-4 in the second game before the Cards reeled off five straight points (two kills and one service point from Emily Oksness, one point by Pap and one block from Boeve) to gain a 9-6 cushion.
The difference was four points (12-8) when Boomgaarden produced a pair of tips and a kill to give the Cards a 15-8 victory.
Luverne scored the first 12 points and coasted to a 15-5 win in the finale.
Callen Bosshart served a seven-point run to start the game. Morgan recorded two kills and Boomgaarden provided an ace tip to keep Bosshart's run alive.
Service points by Lyndsie Johnson and Casey Kleinjan, kills by Morgan and Pap and a tip by Taylor Nelson capped Luverne's 12-0 run to start the game.
LH did close the gap to nine points (14-5) before Morgan served the final point of the match.
Morgan, who was 17 of 18 serving, led the Cards with 11 kills. Bosshart was eight of eight with seven service points, and Brittney Williams was six of six.
Boeve, Pap and Boomgaarden recorded five kills each for the winners.
JCC 3, Luverne 0
The Cardinals went down fighting during Thursday's Southwest Conference match in Jackson.
LHS may have come up on the short end of a 3-0 decision, but the final score doesn't indicate the effort the Cards turned in against one of the area's best teams.
"We lost, but we actually played some pretty good volleyball," said Cardinal coach Graphenteen. "I was really pleased with our effort. We received some good performances and showed some improvement against a very good volleyball team."
JCC posted a comfortable 15-6 win in Game 1, but the Cards pressed the Huskies while dropping 15-10 decisions in Games 2 and 3.
Although the Cards had 10 serving errors in the third game, they found themselves in position to win the contest with the score deadlocked at 10. JCC was able to withstand the challenge by scoring the final five points in the game.
Graphenteen said the Cards need to clean up some of the unforced errors that hurt them in the match, but she couldnÕt ask more from her players on the defensive end of the court.
"We really played exceptional defense. We were digging up a lot of balls, and our play in the back row was much better than it has been," she said.
Stephanie Morgan and Emily Oksness charted 11 and six kills respectively, while Brittney Williams recorded 14 set assists.
Cassie Pap completed 12 of 12 serves while scoring a team-high six points, and Tara Boomgaarden was nine of 10 with four counters.
Oksness and Boomgaarden completed 90 and 80 percent of their serve receptions during the match respectively.