The Cards, however, regrouped to best Martin County West in a five-game match in Luverne Monday before sweeping a three-game test from Russell-Tyler-Ruthton in Tyler Tuesday.
Luverne, 10-11-1 overall, caps the regular season by playing in Redwood Falls tonight and against Southwest Christian in Edgerton Tuesday.
Luverne 3, R-T-R 0
The momentum Luverne gained by winning a five-game match against MCW Monday carried over into Tuesday’s match in Tyler.
The R-T-R Knights are a good team that could win the Camden Conference title next week, but they were no match for the Cards.
LHS outscored R-T-R 45-13 while securing 15-4, 15-4 and 15-5 victories.
"We were in control the entire match," said Cardinal coach Mary Jo Graphenteen. "We cut down the number of errors we’ve been making, and we pretty much handled them. Everything was flowing for us, and they couldn’t get any kind of rhythm going. It was a great win for us.’
Susan Remme led the Cardinals to victory by notching 14 kills and completing 19 of 19 serves while scoring 12 points.
Emily Kuhlman and Tracey Scheidt had five kills each for a Luverne squad that had a season-low five hitting errors in the match.
Luverne also missed a season-low two serves.
Amy Nunez (11 of 11), Brooke Lundgren (12 of 12), Erin Lammert (eight of eight) and Scheidt (13 of 14) all had successful nights at the service line.
Luverne 3, MCW 2
The Cardinal girls snapped a season-long five-match losing streak when they bested the visiting Mustangs in a five-game match played in Luverne Monday.
LHS knew it would be in for a tough battle against MCW, a team that had bested squads like Jackson County Central and P-J, teams that had beaten the Cards earlier in the year.
Luverne, however, posted three narrow wins in Games 1, 2 and 5 to win the marathon match.
"It was a classic match of how volleyball is played," said Cardinal coach Graphenteen. "It was exciting, stressful, fun and disheartening all at the same time. It was a match that had everything in all five games, and it was a good match to win."
Four of the games were decided by two points, and Luverne was fortunate to come out on top in three of them.
The Cards gained the upper hand early by recording 18-16 and 15-13 in the first two games.
Luverne was in a position to sweep the Mustangs during Game 3, but Graphenteen said she accepted the blame for a substitution infraction that cost the Cards a point during a 17-15 loss.
Everything went MCW’s way in Game 4, when the Mustangs strolled to a 15-2 win to even the match at two games each.
Game 5 was tightly contested from beginning to end.
A 5-1 surge by LHS snapped a deadlock at seven and gave the Cards a 12-8 cushion, but MCW countered with five straight points to move in front 13-12.
MCW led 14-13 when Luverne’s Emily Kuhlman, who usually is rotated out of Luverne’s line-up when it’s her turn to serve, remained in the game and delivered an ace serve to knot the score at 14.
MCW scored the next point before Brooke Lundgren, who was 35 of 37 serving with 25 points and two aces in the match, served a three-point run that gave the Cards a 17-15 victory.
Susan Remme had another big night for the Cards by recording a team-high 29 kills. Kuhlman and Tracey Scheidt added 12 and 10 kills respectively.
Erin Lammert completed all 23 of her serves in the match and scored 10 points.
Graphenteen also singled out a contribution made by Amy Nunez. Nunez received six serves when MCW was testing her in the fifth game, and five of her passes went directly to the setter, while the other was playable.
HWC tourney
The Cardinal girls were unable to record a win while playing three matches during the Hull (Iowa) Western Christian Tournament Saturday.
Luverne played two Minnesota teams and the host school, coming up on the short end of scores in six straight battles.
"We played well at times and put ourselves in a position to be competitive," said Cardinal coach Graphenteen. "At other times we were simply overmatched."
The Cards drew a tough task when they were pitted against Central Minnesota Christian in the tournament’s first round.
CMC, the state’s No. 1-ranked Class 1A team, upended LHS 15-8 and 15-2.
Luverne played well in the early stages of Game 1 against CMC, trailing 8-7 at one point, but CMC reeled off seven straight points to win the contest.
The Cards played Southwest Christian during the second round and came up on the short end of 17-15 and 15-10 scores.
LHS led the E-Gals 12-5 in the first game of the match before being outscored 11-3 the rest of the way.
HWC kept the Cardinals winless for the day by delivering them 15-9 and 15-2 losses in the finale.
"Overall, I was pleased with the way we played. With the type of competition we were facing, we hung in there pretty well," Graphenteen concluded.
Susan Remme emerged as Luverne’s top attacker by recording 22 kills during the event. Abbey Franken and Brooke Lundgren added six and five kills respectively.
Erin Lammert and Lundgren both completed 24 serves without a miss.
With back-row specialist Lisa Mulder unable to play due to an illness, Graphenteen said Missy Boomgaarden did an excellent job in her absence. The coach said putting Amy Nunez and Franken on the floor proved to be a successful combination for LHS.